The National Labour Inspectorate (INL), with its Note No. 6316 dated 18 July 2018 provided its opinion regarding the legal nature of the offence related to failure to hire disabled individuals or individuals belonging to the protected categories as per art. 15, paragraph 4, of the law No. 68/1999. According to INL the aforementioned offence shall be deemed immediate and with permanent effects. Immediate due to the fact that the omission occurs when the term established by law expires and the party bearing the legal responsibility to perform the hiring by the 60th day from the date in which the obligation occurs fails to do so. Permanent due to the extended effect of the offence over time until the breach is corrected. Qualifying an offence as immediate triggers a number of repercussions in terms of applicable regulation, in the case of sequence of laws over time. Regarding the offences occurred when the old regulation was in force – whose effects continue to apply even after the new penalty provision established by article 5, paragraph 1, letter b) of Law Decree No. 185/2016entered into force on 8 October 2016 – the applicable penalty will be the one in force at the time in which the offence occurred, according to the “tempus regit actum” principle. Even with reference to the terms of the statute of limitations it will be necessary to refer to the time when the offence actually occurred.
