A guide to internship programmes (Legea 176/2018, amended by Legea 209/2025): eligibility, maximum duration, the minimum allowance, the cap on interns and the employer's duties.
Translated from Romanian. This article covers Romanian labour and tax law; the Romanian version is canonical and is updated first.
An internship is a good way to test and train young talent, but it has a legal framework of its own, with rules on duration, allowance and employer duties. Confusing it with an ordinary employment contract can cause problems. Here is what a company needs to know.
The internship programme is governed by Legea 176/2018, amended by Legea 209/2025 (applicable from December 2025), and by the implementing rules (Ordinul 790/2021). An internship is carried out on the basis of an internship contract (contract de internship), which is distinct from the individual employment contract.
A person may be an intern from the age of 16 (or from 15, with the consent of parents/legal representatives, under the conditions laid down by law). As a rule, an internship is aimed at people at the start of their career who want to gain practical experience.
The rules on duration are strict:
The intern receives a monthly allowance of at least 50% of the gross minimum wage on the economy, granted in proportion to the time worked. This is a minimum threshold; the employer may offer more. The allowance has a regime of its own, tied to the schedule actually worked.
The law limits the number of interns relative to employees (in principle a maximum of 10% of the number of employees) and the number of interns per mentor (as a rule a maximum of 3). Each intern must have a designated mentor, who guides and assesses them.
A company that organises an internship has concrete duties:
At the end, the intern receives a certificate attesting the experience. The period may be recognised as length of service (vechime) under the conditions laid down by law. In addition, if the employer hires the intern within a set period after completion (in principle 60 days), it may benefit from a subsidy — an incentive to turn the internship into employment.
The Workly time-tracking module keeps a record of the intern’s hours (the 720-hour cap over 6 months, the different schedule for minors) and calculates the allowance in proportion to the time worked, respecting the minimum threshold. Contract and length-of-service management, along with registration with ANOFM, run in the same flow, deterministically, with no parallel records. That way the internship stays compliant, and the move into employment (with any subsidy) is easy to track.
Informational article, accurate at the date of publication. Not legal advice. The rules on internship programmes may be changed by new legislation — always check the framework in force at the official source (ANOFM, the Ministry of Labour, Monitorul Oficial) or consult a specialist before setting up a programme.
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