The Romanian state could collect at least an extra EUR 38 million each year from companies which are supposed to hire people with disabilities within the quota establish by law, according to a recent study by the Romanian Academic Society (SAR) and Motivation Romania foundation.

Companies with more than 50 employees are obliged by law to hire people with disabilities to cover 4 percent of their staff, otherwise they would pay penalties. If all the penalties were collected, the state would get an additional EUR 100 million to the budget.

In theory, there should be 140,000 jobs for people with disabilities in Romania, based on this system. However, only 29,000 people with disabilities have been hired based on this quota system, and this amount includes those who work for smaller companies, under 50 employees.

Many employees prefer to pay the penalties instead of hiring people with disabilities, according to the study. Penalties are collected for over 75,000 dedicated positions which are not filled with disabled candidates.

The current system in Romania, where the control almost lack, is mainly based on how willing companies are to comply with the rules, according to the SAR study.

editor@romania-insider.com