REGES-Online: What Romania's New Employment Registry Means for Employers Hiring Non-EU Workers in 2026

Since 1 January 2026, Romania's employment contract registry has been operating under an entirely new system. REGES-Online, introduced by Government Decision 295/2025, permanently replaced REVISAL — the platform that employers had used for over a decade to register employment contracts with the Labour Inspectorate. For companies hiring non-EU workers, this transition carries compliance implications that go beyond a simple software switch. The registration rules, the data fields, the deadlines, and the fine structure have all changed in ways that require attention before the first working day of any new non-EU hire.

The core obligation has not changed: every employment contract must be registered in the national registry before the employee begins work. What has changed is what "registered" now means. REGES-Online requires a substantially broader set of data fields than REVISAL did, the platform is integrated directly with the Labour Inspectorate's digital inspection tools, and the penalties for non-compliance have been raised significantly.

What REGES-Online Replaced and Why It Matters

REVISAL was Romania's electronic employment registry from 2011 until the end of 2025. It operated as a locally installed software application that employers downloaded, completed offline, and then transmitted to ITM (Inspectoratul Teritorial de Munca — the Territorial Labour Inspectorate). The architecture was decentralised, slow to update, and prone to data inconsistencies.

REGES-Online is a cloud-based national platform accessible through a web browser, operated centrally by ITM. Employers no longer install or manage local software. All contract registrations, modifications, suspensions, and terminations are entered directly into the online interface in real time. The system is live, auditable, and connected to other government databases — including ANAF (the Tax Authority) and IGI (the General Inspectorate for Immigration), which is particularly relevant when non-EU workers are involved.

For non-EU workers, the connection to IGI is significant. REGES-Online allows inspectors to cross-reference an employment registration against the work permit status held by IGI. An employer who has registered a contract in REGES-Online for a worker whose work authorisation has not yet been issued — or who registers under the wrong permit category — will generate a data mismatch that ITM can flag automatically.

New Mandatory Data Fields in 2026

The most operationally demanding aspect of REGES-Online for employers is the expanded set of mandatory fields. Under REVISAL, the minimum required data included the employee's personal identification number (CNP or, for foreigners, the equivalent identifier), the job title, the COR occupation code, the gross salary, and the start date.

REGES-Online adds or makes mandatory several fields that were previously optional or absent:

• Exact workplace address: the specific location where the employee will perform work, not just the company's registered address. For non-EU workers assigned to client sites or project locations, this requires the actual work site address at time of registration.
• Work mode: employers must declare whether the employee will work on-site, remotely, or in a hybrid arrangement. This field feeds directly into ITM's classification of telework contracts under Law 81/2018.
• Working time schedule: the standard hours per day and days per week must be specified in a structured format, not simply referenced to the collective agreement.
• Contract type classification: the system requires a more granular sub-classification of fixed-term contracts, distinguishing between project-based, seasonal, and replacement contracts.
• For non-EU workers specifically: the work permit number, permit type (D/AM1 or D/AM2 under GEO 32/2026, or ICT permit), and the permit validity dates must be entered at the time of initial registration.

The Pre-First-Day Rule: Stricter Than Before

Under both REVISAL and REGES-Online, the law requires contract registration before the employee's first working day. In practice, under REVISAL, some employers registered contracts on the first day of work or even retroactively, taking advantage of the platform's offline nature and ITM's limited real-time visibility.

REGES-Online's cloud architecture eliminates that window. When a labour inspector conducts an on-site visit and checks the registry in real time, a contract that is not yet registered — even by one hour — appears as an unregistered employment relationship. For non-EU workers, this creates compounded exposure: an unregistered contract for a foreign national is treated as both a labour violation and a potential immigration violation, potentially triggering review by both ITM and IGI simultaneously.

The practical implication is straightforward: for every non-EU worker, the REGES-Online registration must be completed and confirmed before the employee's physical first day — including situations where the first day is a Monday and the registration would otherwise fall on a weekend.

Fines: What Changed in 2026

The fine structure for unregistered employment was revised alongside the REGES-Online rollout. Fines for employing workers without a registered contract, which previously ranged from RON 20,000 to RON 30,000 per worker under Law 53/2003 as amended, were reported as doubled for violations identified from 1 January 2026 onwards, reaching up to RON 40,000 per unregistered worker.

For non-EU workers, additional penalties apply under GEO 32/2026 for employing a foreign national without a valid work authorisation. These sanctions are cumulative: an employer found with a non-EU worker whose contract is both unregistered and whose work permit has expired can face fines under both the Labour Code and GEO 32/2026 simultaneously.

The employer is also liable for the administrative costs of any regularisation procedure, and persistent violations can result in ITM referring the matter to the Public Ministry for criminal investigation under provisions targeting illegal employment.

What Employers Must Prepare Before Any Non-EU Hire

The REGES-Online registration is one step in a sequence that must be planned in full before a non-EU worker begins employment. The sequence, in practical terms, runs as follows.

The work authorisation must be in place first. Under GEO 32/2026, D/AM1 workers (highly skilled, quota-exempt) require employer registration on WorkinRomania.gov.ro and issuance of an individual work authorisation before the worker can enter Romania on a D/AM1 visa. D/AM2 workers require full ANOFM authorisation, vacancy publication, and an authorisation letter before the visa application. The employment contract is signed after the authorisation is issued.

Once the contract is signed, the REGES-Online registration must be completed before the first working day. The platform will require the permit number from the authorisation document. After registration, the employer must also file the work permit's data with the local ITM office and, within 30 days of the worker's arrival in Romania, the worker must be enrolled in the social security and health insurance systems.

How Nestlers Group Supports REGES-Online Compliance

Nestlers Group's Payroll and HR Compliance team handles REGES-Online registrations for every non-EU worker onboarded through Nestlers' Employer of Record or payroll management services. This includes preparing the full data set required for initial registration — work mode classification, workplace address, COR occupation codes, permit reference data — and ensuring the registration is confirmed before the first working day.

For clients managing direct employment, Nestlers' Immigration Advisory team coordinates the sequencing between the work authorisation issued under GEO 32/2026 and the REGES-Online registration, so that the permit number is available and accurate at the moment of contract filing. This coordination matters because a registration submitted with incorrect or incomplete permit data creates a data mismatch in the ITM system that requires a formal correction procedure.

Nestlers also maintains awareness of ongoing changes to REGES-Online's field requirements, since the platform has been updated several times since its January 2026 launch. Employers managing registrations independently should monitor ITM guidance on mmss.gov.ro and iti.gov.ro for updates to mandatory fields and submission procedures.

Sources: Government Decision 295/2025 on the REGES-Online platform (Official Gazette); Government Emergency Ordinance 32/2026 on the employment of non-EU nationals (Official Gazette No. 335, 27 April 2026); Law 53/2003 — Romanian Labour Code (consolidated 2026); ITM guidance on REGES-Online mandatory fields (mmss.gov.ro, 2026); Order 655/2026 on bilingual employment contract templates for non-EU workers.