Part-time contract guide: the legal definition, the mandatory clauses, pro-rata rights, the ban on overtime, annual leave and the employer's obligations.
Translated from Romanian. This article covers Romanian labour and tax law; the Romanian version is canonical and is updated first.
The part-time contract is used often and understood badly. The most frequent errors — from “part-time means 4 hours” to “they get half the leave days” — cost money or attract penalties. Here are the real rules.
The Labour Code (Codul Muncii) defines a part-time employee (salariat cu fracțiune de normă) as one whose number of normal working hours, calculated weekly or as a monthly average, is lower than that of a comparable full-time employee.
In other words: part-time = under 8 hours a day or under 40 hours a week. There is no fixed threshold of the “4 hours” type — it can be 2, 4, 6 or 7 hours a day, or an uneven distribution across the week.
The contract is concluded only in written form and, like any CIM (individual employment contract), is registered in REGES (the General Register of Employee Records) before the first day of activity.
On top of the elements of any individual employment contract, a part-time one must expressly provide:
The absence of these particulars has a severe consequence: the contract may be deemed to have been concluded for full-time work, with everything that follows from that in terms of salary and contributions.
A part-time employee has the same rights as a full-time one. The difference is that quantitative rights are granted in proportion to the time actually worked.
Granted pro rata:
What is NOT divided is the number of annual leave days. This is the most widespread error: a part-time employee is entitled to the same minimum of 20 working days a year as a full-time one, for a full year worked. What differs is the leave allowance, proportional to the working time — not the number of days off.
The situation changes only where the work is performed on a few days a week: leave is then calculated in proportion to the days actually worked.
CAS (the pension contribution) 25%, CASS (the health contribution) 10%, income tax 10% and CAM (the employer’s work insurance contribution) 2.25% apply identically, to the actual base. There are no reduced rates for part-time work.
One aspect that has generated a lot of confusion over the years: the mechanism by which contributions on part-time contracts were calculated by reference to the minimum wage, regardless of the income actually earned (the so-called “over-taxation”). The regime of this rule has changed several times. Check the form in force at the date of the calculation — it is exactly the kind of provision that changes from one fiscal package to the next and that significantly alters the cost of a part-time contract.
How many hours does part-time mean? Any schedule below the full-time norm of 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week. There is no single threshold — it can be 2, 4, 6 or 7 hours a day.
Does a part-time employee have fewer leave days? No. They have the same minimum of 20 working days for a full year. What is granted pro rata is the allowance, not the number of days.
Can they work overtime? As a rule, no. The exceptions are force majeure and urgent work to prevent or remove the consequences of an accident.
What happens if I do not provide for the distribution of the schedule in the contract? The contract may be deemed to have been concluded for full-time work, with consequences for salary and contributions.
Are contributions lower for part-time work? The rates are the same. There are, however, special rules on the calculation base referenced to the minimum wage, which have changed several times — check the form in force at the date of the calculation.
See also the individual employment contract and how to calculate annual leave.
Part-time contracts are exactly where manual record-keeping goes wrong: unevenly distributed schedules, leave days calculated “at half”, overtime logged out of habit. Workly generates the CIM with the distribution of the schedule filled in and validates the COR code (the Romanian classification of occupations code), while time tracking applies the actual schedule of each contract — not an implicit 8-hour norm.
The Leave module correctly grants the minimum 20 days, with the allowance calculated pro rata in payroll. And if the actual schedule consistently exceeds the contract, the difference shows up in the time records — that is, exactly before it becomes a problem in an ITM inspection, not afterwards.
Informational article, accurate at the date of publication. Not legal or tax advice. The contributions regime for part-time contracts has changed several times — check the form in force at the date of the calculation or consult a specialist.
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