During the state of emergency and the state of alert some activities were not permitted. As the situation develops and industries are resuming activity the Government issues orders that target each type of activity that will resume and general guidelines for employers.

• General rules on the conduct of employers are included in Law no. 55/2020 that declared the state of alert. The Law allows employers to order employees to work from home, to change their workplace and work hours as long as the employees agree to these changes. Collective employment agreements remain applicable for the entire duration of the state of alert period and for an additional 90 days after the state of alert will be lifted. This will ensure stability for both employers and employees.
• Protective masks are mandatory at the workplace with the exception of employees that do not share a working space with anybody, employees that are performing activities in conditions of extreme temperatures or that require a great amount of physical activity and also employees with health conditions that may lead to respiratory difficulties. Additional individual protective gear may be required for specific employees with high exposure to risk factors. Soap and disinfectants should be widely and readily available to employees.
• The general guidelines on the employer and employee conduct during the state of alert were introduced by the Joint Order of the Minister of Employment and the Minister of Health no. 3577/831/2020. The order includes a series of mandatory obligations for the employer on how to organise the activity during the state of alert such as ensuring the existence of special access corridors for employees that are designed to reduce congestion at the entrance, or the proper cleaning, disinfecting and venting working spaces. The order recommends employers with more than 50 employees to use individualised working hours that allow employees to start work at 3 different hours. The employer must properly inform the employees on the safety rules that are mandatory during the state of emergency and should ensure that the employees follow the mandatory rules. The order gives general guidelines on how the employer should act in case of suspicion of infection with COVID-19 or in case of confirmed infection with COVID-19, including how and when the workplace could be reopened. The order also includes a series of obligations for the employees regarding their individual conduct. The employers will check the temperature of all employees at the beginning of the working program and will not allow any employee that has a temperature higher than 37.3°C to enter the workplace. Also the employer will not allow any employee that presents respiratory infection symptoms to enter the workplace.
• The general guidelines for the activity performed by employees in open space areas were introduced by the Joint Order of the Minister of Economy and the Minister of Health no. 1731/832/2020. Employers are also recommended to use individualised working hours. All common areas should be disinfected every 4 hours, employees that use desks that are facing front to back or back to back should have at least 1.5 m between them and employees that use desks that are facing front to front should be separated by screens that should be disinfected every day. Lunch breaks will be organised in such a manner that if the employees use a common space they should be at a distance of at least 2 m of each other. The same Joint Order introduces rules on how hospitality facilities should be organised and on how self-care facilities that are allowed to function should be organised.
• Orders regulating other industries such as transport, dental care, education, or sports were also issued when a specific activity was allowed to resume.

All new normative acts are published in the Official Monitor available at http://www.monitoruloficial.ro/article--e-Monitor--339.html.  In order to stay up-to-date on this fast paced area of the law, the Official Monitor should be checked daily.