Romanian Supreme Court holds that predetermined amounts that are to be paid by the employee, in case of damages made to the employer, cannot be inserted within the individual employment agreement

The Supreme Court has issued a general and mandatory ruling stating that in order for an employee to be ordered to pay damages to the employer, a court should determine the amount that is to be paid. The parties cannot negotiate and insert, within the individual employment agreements, predetermined amounts.

In issuing this ruling, the Supreme Court took into consideration the fact that the evaluation of any type of damages should be made after the event that caused the damages took place and not prior to the event. As a rule, the employer has to be granted permission by the court to receive damages from the employee and the court has the liberty to set the damages.

The employer and the employee can also agree on the amount to be paid by the employee, but only after the occurrence of the event and only if the amount agreed upon is not higher than 5 minimum wages.

In any case, a predetermined amount that should be paid by the employee as damages cannot be inserted within the individual employment agreement. If an individual employment agreement includes such a clause, the clause will be considered null and void and will not be enforced.