Romania: New Ruling of the High Court of Cassation and Justice on the Use of Recordings in Labour Court Cases

The High Court for Cassation of Justice (HCCJ) was called by the Court of Appeal of Bucharest to issue a ruling on the possibility of using recordings of phone calls between a plaintiff employee and other employees or representatives of the employer made without the consent of the other person as evidence in labour court cases. The HCCJ had already previously recognized the fact that recording could be admissible as evidence in labour court cases, and the new ruling is meant to give more context for the judges when considering such proof.

The HCCJ ruled that the recording of a telephone conversation between an employee and another employee or representative of the employer, requested in a court case against the employer, is admissible as evidence, even if the recording was made without the consent and/or prior information of the interlocutor, provided that there is just a balance between the right to prove the claims. On the one hand is the right to a private life. On the other hand, the sense that the acceptance of evidence must be indispensable to exercising the right to prove the claims and strictly proportional to this purpose.

Practical point

Any request to bring such recordings as evidence in court cases should be analysed in a case-by-case manner. The individual that was subject to the recording without prior knowledge should be heard in order for them to give proper context on how the recording might affect their private life.