Time tracking and the Labour Code: why it is mandatory (art. 119), what methods exist (paper, RFID/NFC, QR, kiosk, web/mobile) and how to choose the right one.
Translated from Romanian. This article covers Romanian labour and tax law; the Romanian version is canonical and is updated first.
Time tracking is not an administrative formality left to the company’s discretion: it is a duty laid down by the Labour Code (Codul Muncii). Every employer in Romania must keep a clear record of the hours worked by each employee. This guide explains why, what it means in practice, and how to choose the recording method that fits your company.
Time tracking means recording each employee’s working time daily — when the schedule starts and when it ends, plus absences and their type (annual leave, time off, sick leave and so on).
The duty is set by article 119 of the Labour Code: the employer must keep, at the workplace, a record of the hours worked daily by each employee, showing the start time and the end time of the working schedule, and must make that record available to labour inspectors whenever it is requested.
Important: the law requires the record to be kept, but it does not prescribe a particular method. You may choose a paper register, a file or an application — as long as the record is real, kept daily, and available during an inspection.
A well-kept time record does not only track attendance hours; it connects to the whole legal framework on working time and rest:
If the hours are entered correctly in the record, these limits are easy to check. If they are not, you risk exceeding the legal working-time ceilings without realising it.
A case that frequently produces errors is work on public holidays. Under article 142 of the Labour Code, an employee who works on a public holiday is entitled, first of all, to compensation with corresponding time off within the following 30 days.
Only where, for justified reasons, the time off cannot be granted does the employee receive a premium on the base salary of at least 100% for the work performed during the normal schedule on that day. A higher premium may be agreed through collective or individual negotiation, but not a lower one.
The record must clearly mark these days, otherwise the compensation or the premium will not reach the payroll correctly.
The classic attendance register. Cheap and simple, but easy to fill in retroactively, hard to aggregate for payroll and prone to errors. For a labour inspection, an incomplete or contradictory register is a risk.
This is where modern methods come in, each suited to a context:
The most common time-tracking fraud is buddy-punching — a colleague clocking in for someone else. A fixed QR code displayed on a wall can be photographed and used from home; a borrowed card can clock in for another person.
Effective solutions combine several layers: a rotating QR code, which expires quickly and cannot be reused later, plus an NFC card tied to physical presence at the station. That way, the check-in stays anchored to real presence, at that moment, at that place.
Time-tracking data is personal data. The legal basis for processing is usually the employer’s legal obligation (art. 119 of the Labour Code read together with art. 6 of the GDPR) — you do not need separate consent to keep a record of hours.
Be careful, however, with biometric data (fingerprint, facial recognition): these are special categories, with far stricter rules, which as a rule require an impact assessment (DPIA) and an analysis of less intrusive alternatives. Card/QR/PIN methods avoid that level of sensitivity. In addition, collect only what is strictly necessary and restrict access to attendance data to the people entitled to it.
There is no “best” method in the abstract — it depends on the company:
Often the answer is mixed: cards in the plant, mobile for the field, web at the office.
Time tracking does not end with the record of hours: it feeds payroll. Overtime, public holiday premiums, absences — all of them translate into amounts on the payslip. A clean record means a correct payroll, without manual corrections.
During an inspection, the Labour Inspectorate (ITM) checks exactly this record. The absence of the record of hours required by art. 119 is sanctioned as an administrative offence — under the rules in force at the date of publication, the fine ranges between 1,500 and 3,000 lei (check the current value). Beyond the fine, the absence of a clear record leaves you without evidence in any employment dispute about hours worked.
Workly covers the full range of methods in a single product: a kiosk with a rotating QR code and NFC card for plants, warehouses and teams without smartphones, plus web and mobile for office and field. You choose the method by context, without being locked into a single pattern.
Time-tracking data flows deterministically onward into payroll, with export in SAGA format — no manual re-keying. And the internal assistant Modi is deterministic, with no external LLM, so it cannot “hallucinate” figures: it answers from real data and configured rules, not from assumptions. GDPR is treated seriously, with an emphasis on data minimisation and controlled access.
For the concrete calculation of hours worked beyond the schedule you can also use the 2026 overtime calculator.
Informational article, accurate at the date of publication. Not tax or legal advice. For your specific situation, always check the official source (the Labour Code, the Labour Inspectorate) or consult a specialist.
Night work guide: the 22:00–06:00 window, the 3-hour test, the choice between a schedule shortened by one hour and the 25% premium, medical examinations and protected categories.
Shift planning guide: the 12-hour daily rest and the 48-hour weekly one, night shifts, uneven schedules, the 4-month reference period and the rules on communicating the roster.
Overtime calculation step by step: the hourly rate, the minimum 75% premium, compensation with time off within 90 days, combining with the night premium and public holidays.
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