Law 335/2013 regarding the stage of higher education graduates (the “Internship Law”) was published in the Romanian Official Gazette no. 776 of 12 December 2013 and, in line with the EU strategy for workforce occupation, aims to provide better work and training conditions for young people. The Internship Law implements the framework provisions on internship from the Labor Code and will come into force within 90 days from the publication date.

In order to carry out an internship, companies need to enter into labor contracts with the graduates, just as they do with regular employees, with the specificity that an additional internship agreement must be entered into by the company and the graduate. The internship agreement becomes an annex to the labor contract and is concluded for a six-month period (the duration of the internship imposed by the Internship Law), except for cases when a special time period is set forth by a particular piece of legislation.

The intern receives a monthly salary — as well as all the other typical employee protections under the labor contract — and performs work, carrying out his or her activity based on a plan reflecting the intern’s objectives and performance targets, that is approved by the company.

Each participating company must appoint an internship mentor who is allowed to coordinate and supervise not more than three (3) interns simultaneously.

Before the internship is completed, an appraisal committee, also appointed by the company, drafts a report about the intern (highlighting the activities, objectives achieved, performance indicators, competencies and skills, behaviour, degree of involvement, etc.). At the same time, the intern must also draft a self-appraisal report regarding the activities carried out during the internship period. Both reports must be considered by the company before a decision is taken as to the completion of the internship and the termination or the continuation of the labor contract. The procedural steps to be followed in both cases are to be laid out by the methodological norms to the Internship Law, which are to be adopted in the following months.

In any case, if the appraisal is unsatisfactory, the labor contract may be terminated without notice and the company may employ another higher education graduate for the same position, based on an internship agreement, only one more time. The intern may challenge the company’s decision, first internally, by filing a complaint with the company and, subsequently, in court, within 30 days from the company’s response issued further to the initial internal complaint.

The company may contractually impose a retention period during which the intern may not initiate the termination of the labor contract for a given duration if, during the internship period, the intern has benefitted from professional training — under the sanction of incurring relevant costs — as demonstrated by the company.

Companies entering into an internship agreement may receive a monthly monetary incentive of approximately €170 (1.5 x the value of the social reference indicator, which is currently set at RON 500, approx. €112).