Transnational Posting to Romania: The ITM Notification Obligations Employers Cannot Miss

A single missing declaration can cost a posting company between 5,000 and 9,000 lei, and the fine applies per posted worker not notified, not per company. Under Legea 16/2017 and its implementing rules in HG 337/2017, the obligation to notify the Romanian Territorial Labour Inspectorate (ITM) before a transnational posting begins is not a formality employers can backfill after the fact. The declaration has to be filed no later than the working day before the posted worker starts activity in Romania, and by the time an ITM inspector shows up on site, it is already too late to fix a missed filing.

Employers frequently assume that a posting arrangement between an EU-based company and a Romanian host entity is a private commercial matter, handled through the service contract alone. It is not. Legea 16/2017, which transposes the EU Posted Workers Directive 96/71/EC as amended by Directive 2018/957, places a direct statutory notification duty on the posting undertaking, enforced by ITM through a dedicated schedule of contraventional fines. The rules apply whether the posting company is Romanian sending workers abroad or a foreign company posting workers into Romania.

This article sets out exactly what must be notified, when, what must be kept on file for inspection, and what each category of non-compliance costs.

What Must Be Notified to ITM Before the Posting Starts

The core obligation under Legea 16/2017 is the submission of a written declaration, in the Romanian language, to the territorial labour inspectorate covering the location where the posted employees will actually work. This declaration must reach ITM no later than the working day preceding the start of the posting activity in Romania. It can be submitted by post or by email to the relevant territorial inspectorate, and inspectiamuncii.ro publishes a model declaration form that most posting companies use as the baseline template.

The declaration is expected to identify, at minimum:

• The posting undertaking and the host company or beneficiary in Romania
• The identity of each posted employee
• The anticipated start date and expected duration of the posting
• The place or places of work in Romania
• The nature of the services being provided

Because the filing window is a single working day, employers cannot treat the notification as something to sort out once the worker has already reported to site. Any delay in finalising the host contract or travel plans compresses the compliance window accordingly.

The Liaison Person Requirement

Alongside the declaration, the posting employer must designate a liaison person based in Romania whose role is to communicate with ITM and other competent national authorities on the posting company's behalf. This person receives and transmits documents and notices related to the posting and acts as the practical point of contact if an inspector requests information.

• The liaison person does not need to be an employee of the host company, but must be reachable and authorised to respond to ITM
• Failure to designate this person is treated as a separate, fineable violation, distinct from failing to file the declaration itself
• Many posting companies without a Romanian presence rely on their local partner, EOR provider, or legal representative to fill this role

Skipping this step is a common oversight, since it feels administrative, but ITM treats it as a standalone obligation with its own fine range.

Documents That Must Be Available for Inspection

Filing the declaration is only the starting obligation. For the full duration of the posting, and for three years after it ends, the posting employer must be able to produce a defined set of documents on request, translated into Romanian.

• The employment contract or an equivalent document, including supplementary details on duration, pay currency, benefits, and repatriation terms
• Proof of salary payment covering the posting period
• Records of working time and attendance for the posted worker
• Evidence supporting the worker's habitual activity in the home country, which in practice is usually the A1 portable document confirming continued social security coverage there

When ITM issues a written request for these documents, guidance from inspectiamuncii.ro points to a 20 working day window as the standard for producing this file. Missing that deadline, not just missing the original notification, is its own violation category under the fine schedule.

Penalties for Missing the Notification or the Documentation

HG 337/2017, the implementing regulation for Legea 16/2017, sets out specific contraventional fines tied to each type of failure. These are not symbolic amounts, and they are assessed per worker affected by the violation.

• Failure to submit the declaration to ITM before posting begins: 5,000 to 9,000 lei
• Submitting a declaration with incomplete or incorrect data: 3,000 to 5,000 lei
• Failure to keep the required documents available during the posting: 5,000 to 9,000 lei
• Failure to provide the documents within the deadline set by ITM: 5,000 to 9,000 lei
• Failure to provide Romanian translations of the required documents: 5,000 to 9,000 lei
• Failure to designate the liaison person: 5,000 to 9,000 lei
• Refusal by the Romanian-based representative to make documents available to inspectors during a control: 5,000 to 9,000 lei

Because each of these is charged separately, one inspection finding no declaration, no liaison person, and no documents ready can trigger multiple fines from the same visit, applied per posted worker involved.

Practical Timing: Where Employers Get Caught Out

Most compliance failures here are not deliberate. They happen because the posting decision, the host contract, and travel dates are finalised close together, leaving no buffer for the one-working-day filing window. A few patterns show up repeatedly.

• Contracts signed and mobilisation dates confirmed within days of the posting start, with the ITM declaration treated as paperwork to finish later
• No single person inside the organisation tracking which ITM territorial office covers the actual place of work, particularly on multi-site projects
• A1 certificates requested from the home-country social security authority only after the posting has already started, leaving the file incomplete if ITM asks for it early
• Assuming that a short posting, sometimes just a few days, falls below some notification threshold; Legea 16/2017 does not set a minimum duration exemption for the notification duty itself

Building the ITM notification into the same planning stage as the host services agreement, rather than treating it as a downstream task, is the single most effective way to avoid the fine schedule above.

How Nestlers Group Supports Transnational Posting Compliance

Nestlers Group's Work Permit and Visa Support team manages the ITM notification process for postings into Romania end to end, including preparing the Romanian-language declaration, identifying the correct territorial labour inspectorate for the actual place of work, and confirming submission within the working-day deadline before the posting begins. Where a posting company has no established presence in Romania, the team can also coordinate the liaison person role required under Legea 16/2017, so there is a reachable point of contact on file for ITM throughout the posting.

The Payroll and HR Compliance team maintains the supporting documentation file that ITM can request during an inspection, including Romanian translations of employment contracts, salary payment records, and attendance logs, and tracks the three-year retention period after each posting ends. For social security continuity, the Immigration Advisory team works alongside client HR teams to ensure A1 documentation confirming home-country coverage is requested and in place before workers arrive on site. Together, these teams close the compliance gap between when a posting decision is made commercially and when the statutory ITM obligations actually fall due.

Sources: Legea nr. 16/2017 privind detasarea salariatilor in cadrul prestarii de servicii transnationale; HG nr. 337/2017 (implementing norms and contraventional fines schedule, Article 15); Inspectia Muncii (inspectiamuncii.ro) - official guidance and model declaration on transnational posting; EU Posted Workers Directive 96/71/EC as amended by Directive 2018/957/EU