Guide to occupational medicine (HG 355/2007): the pre-employment examination, the fitness-for-work certificate, how often periodic checks fall due, who pays and the fines.
Translated from Romanian. This article covers Romanian labour and tax law; the Romanian version is canonical and is updated first.
Occupational medicine is one of those obligations small companies treat as a box to tick at hiring — and then forget entirely, until an inspection finds that half the team has expired certificates. The fine starts at 4,000 lei. Here is what has to be done, and when.
Health surveillance for workers is governed by HG 355/2007 (Government Decision 355/2007), implementing Legea 319/2006 (Law 319/2006) on occupational health and safety. The basic principle: the employer is required to provide the funds and the conditions for all the necessary preventive medical services, and workers bear no cost in connection with this surveillance.
In other words: you cannot ask an employee to pay for their own tests, or to have them done in their free time at their own expense.
It is mandatory, before work begins. Not a week later, not “when we have time”.
Its purpose is to establish whether the person is fit for the specific post they are about to fill — which is why the occupational medicine doctor needs the request form (fișa de solicitare) completed by the employer, setting out the risks specific to the post. An examination carried out without a real description of the post is, in practice, worthless.
The outcome takes the form of the fitness-for-work certificate (fișa de aptitudine), completed exclusively by the occupational medicine doctor, in two copies — one for the employer, one for the worker.
The certificate may contain one of the following conclusions: fit, fit with conditions (with recommendations/restrictions), temporarily unfit or unfit. The employer is required to observe the recommendations and restrictions entered on it.
This is the part that is missed most often. The periodic medical examination is mandatory for all workers, not only for those exposed to special risks.
The frequency is set through the schedules annexed to HG 355/2007, according to the post and the risk factors. The general rule for most posts is annual — the interval between two checks does not exceed 12 months. For certain exposures, the doctor may set shorter intervals.
The frequency may be changed only at the proposal of the occupational medicine specialist, with notice to the employer — not at the company’s discretion.
Fitness-for-work certificates are documents containing health data — a special category of personal data under GDPR. They are kept with restricted access, and the employer receives the fitness conclusion, not the diagnosis. An HR file in which diagnoses circulate is a compliance problem in itself.
Failure to meet the obligation on health surveillance for workers — including a missing fitness-for-work certificate or missing periodic medical check — is an administrative offence, sanctioned with a fine of between 4,000 and 8,000 lei.
The real risk, however, goes beyond the fine: if a workplace accident occurs and the worker did not hold a valid fitness-for-work certificate for that post, the employer’s position becomes considerably harder, including in criminal terms.
Is the pre-employment medical examination mandatory? Yes, before work begins. Without a fitness-for-work certificate, the employee cannot legally start work in that post.
How often is the periodic medical check carried out? The frequency is set in line with the annexes to HG 355/2007, according to the post and the risks; for most posts it is annual, with the interval between two checks not exceeding 12 months.
Who pays for occupational medicine tests? The employer. Workers bear no cost in connection with the surveillance of their health.
What fine do you risk without a fitness-for-work certificate or a periodic check? An administrative offence sanctioned with a fine of between 4,000 and 8,000 lei, on top of significantly greater exposure in the event of a workplace accident.
Is the employer entitled to see the employee’s diagnosis? No. The employer receives the fitness conclusion (fit / fit with conditions / unfit), not the detailed medical information. Health data is a special category under GDPR.
See also the employee personnel file and the documents required when hiring.
The problem with occupational medicine is not its complexity, but tracking the deadlines across dozens or hundreds of people, each with their own expiry date. Workly’s documents module treats the fitness-for-work certificate as a document with an expiry date and sends alerts before the deadline — at employee level and centrally, so HR can see at a glance who falls due next month.
The certificates sit in the employee’s digital file, encrypted and with role-based access — essential, because this is health data, a special category under GDPR. At hiring, the onboarding flow includes the fitness-for-work certificate in the list of mandatory documents, so a contract cannot be activated with the document missing. And at an inspection, the complete record — who, when, valid until when — exports immediately, without digging through binders.
Informational article, accurate at the date of publication. Not medical or legal advice. Obligations on health surveillance for workers and the level of penalties may change — always check the framework in force (HG 355/2007, Legea 319/2006) or consult a specialist.
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