Leave to care for a sick child: the age limit of 12 (18 for serious conditions), the 6-month contribution history, the annual cap per child, the 85% allowance and the ban on dismissal.
Translated from Romanian. This article covers Romanian labour and tax law; the Romanian version is canonical and is updated first.
When an employee’s child falls ill, the parent is entitled to a special medical leave in order to care for them. The rules differ from ordinary sick leave: a different cap, a different age limit, a different regime for who bears the cost. Here is what the employer needs to know in order to classify the situation correctly.
Leave for the care of a sick child is governed by OUG 158/2005 (Emergency Ordinance 158/2005), as successively amended. An important change was the extension of the child’s age to 12 years (through Legea 179/2023, Law 179/2023). Likewise, the rule of the unpaid first day introduced by OUG 91/2025 for sick leave has to be correlated with the regime of this type of leave.
The leave is granted to a single parent at any given moment — the two parents cannot be on leave for the same child at the same time. They can, however, alternate, depending on need. The entitlement goes to the insured parent who actually cares for the child.
As with most health insurance benefits, a minimum contribution history of 6 months within the previous 12 months is required. There are exceptions for emergencies and serious situations, where the entitlement is granted regardless of contribution history.
The number of paid leave days is capped annually per child: a maximum of 45 calendar days per year for each child (records are kept against the child’s CNP, the personal numeric code), with the possibility of exceeding it for the serious conditions provided by law. In practice, the entitlement is “consumed” out of the child’s annual cap, regardless of which parent uses it.
The allowance for the care of a sick child is 85% of the calculation base (the average gross income over the reference period) and is borne by FNUASS (the National Health Insurance Fund), not by the employer. It is a more favourable percentage than for ordinary illness, precisely in order to protect the parent who is away from work for the child.
The leave is justified by a medical certificate with the code specific to this type of leave, which contains the child’s CNP. Where the entitlement has been partly used up, a certificate showing the days already used in that year may be required, so that the annual cap is not exceeded.
For the duration of the leave, the employment contract is suspended, and the employee benefits from protection against dismissal on this ground. The employer cannot sanction or dismiss the employee for having been lawfully absent, with a certificate, to care for the child.
The Leave module in Workly automatically records the type and code of the benefit, keeps track of the annual cap per child (against the CNP) so that it is not exceeded, and flags the suspension of the contract for the duration of the leave. The calculation of the 85% allowance and the applicable withholdings are done in payroll, with a coherent export in SAGA format, the basis for Declarația 112 (the monthly tax return). This way, the situation of a parent alternating the care of the child stays correctly tracked, without parallel records on paper.
Informational article, accurate at the date of publication. Not medical, tax or legal advice. The rules on leave for the care of a sick child may change through legislation, and some details depend on the specific case — always check the framework in force at the official source (CNAS, ANAF, Monitorul Oficial) or consult a specialist before taking a decision.
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