Guide to the employee personnel file: the mandatory documents (HG 500/2011), the contract and its annexes, physical or digital storage rules, GDPR retention and the link with REGES.
Translated from Romanian. This article covers Romanian labour and tax law; the Romanian version is canonical and is updated first.
For every employee, the company must keep a complete personnel file, which the ITM (the Labour Inspectorate) can ask for at any time. Which documents are mandatory, how to keep them legally (physically or digitally) and what GDPR requires on retention — here is the guide.
The obligation to draw up and keep the personnel file comes from HG 500/2011 (and the related acts, such as HG 905/2017 on the electronic register), read together with the GDPR rules on data protection. The file brings together the documents attesting the employment relationship and must be made available to inspectors on request.
The file starts from the documents gathered at hiring:
The core of the file is the contractual relationship:
While the employment lasts, the following are added:
The file also includes documents relating to compliance and data protection:
The file can be kept physically or digitally, with the same value, provided the integrity and security requirements are met. GDPR requires personal data to be protected (restricted access, encryption where appropriate) and kept only for as long as necessary, with purging when the retention period expires. Keeping copies of identity documents indefinitely “just in case” is exactly the kind of practice GDPR discourages.
The employee has the right to receive, on request, certified copies of the documents in their file, within a reasonable period. Refusal or unjustified delay can attract penalties.
The personnel file is correlated with REGES (the General Register of Employee Records): the contract, the addenda and the termination in the file must have a counterpart in the register. Discrepancies between the file and REGES are among the first things visible in an inspection.
Workly keeps the digital personnel file, with the documents encrypted (PII protected) and with automatic purging when the retention period expires, in line with GDPR. Addenda are generated from the platform and correlated with REGES, and the proof of acknowledgement of the ROI and of the training sessions is kept with a timestamp. That removes the incomplete physical file and the risk of a fine for missing or improperly kept documents.
Informational article, accurate at the date of publication. Not legal advice. The requirements on the personnel file and on data retention may change — always check the framework in force at the official source (the Labour Inspectorate, ANSPDCP, the Official Gazette) or consult a specialist before taking a decision.
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