Against the backdrop of the increasingly pronounced choice of employers to receive foreign citizens to work in Romania, the Romanian legislation on the regime of foreigners is becoming increasingly applicable. Thus, in order to combat the situation in which foreign citizens are received to work in Romania without an employment or secondment permit, extremely drastic penalties have been implemented against the employers in question. In addition to the imposition of fines, employers who illegally make use of foreigners' labour also risk complementary sanctions.

Thus, according to a recent report by the General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI), several companies were found to have people working for them without employment or secondment permits, long-stay visas for work purposes or employment contracts. 

In this regard, the provisions of Government Ordinance no. 25/2014 on the employment and secondment of foreigners on the territory of Romania become applicable, the normative act providing for the following facts punishable by fine:

• the reception to work on the Romanian territory of a foreigner without an employment/departure permit, as well as the reception of a foreigner with illegal residence, with or without an individual employment contract concluded in written form, the facts being sanctioned with fines between 10.000 and 20.000 lei, for each person identified.

In addition to the application of the fine, if the employer receives foreigners illegally residing in Romania for work, the control bodies may order the following: 

• total/ partial loss of the right of the employer or of the beneficiary of the provision of services to receive public benefits, aid or subsidies, including EU funds managed by the Romanian authorities, for a period of up to 5 years;
• prohibition of the right of the employer or the beneficiary of the provision of services to participate in the award of a public procurement contract for a period of up to 5 years;
• full or partial recovery of benefits, aid or public subsidies awarded to the employer/beneficiary for a period of up to 12 months prior to the offence;
• temporary or permanent closure of the workplace or workplaces where the offence was committed or temporary or permanent withdrawal of the licence to carry out the professional activity in question if justified by the seriousness of the infringement. 

In this respect, the detection of offences and the application of the appropriate sanctions are carried out either by the labour inspectors of the territorial labour inspectorates or by IGI workers.