With the Romanian Government entering an interim period and losing its authority to approve draft laws, the draft law aimed at transposing Directive (EU) 2023/970 to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms, published for public consultation at the end of March 2026, has also stalled in the legislative process.
In this context, on June 17, 2026, a group of members of Parliament submitted a legislative proposal to the Romanian Senate under urgent procedure to transpose the Directive, incorporating, with some amendments, the text of the draft law from earlier this spring – likely taking into account the fact that missing the deadline for transposing the Directive into national law (which expired on June 7, 2026) could expose the Romanian State to the risk of infringement proceedings being initiated against it.
According to the information published by the Senate, the proposal is subject to a 45-day tacit approval period (calculated as of 29 June 2026). Given the parliamentary recess, the exact expiry date of this period will depend on when the Senate resumes its activity. Most likely, the tacit approval deadline will expire at the end of October 2026, after which the proposal will be forwarded to the Chamber of Deputies, acting as the decision-making chamber.
It is worth noting at this point that the legislative proposal received a negative opinion from the Legislative Council (Opinions issued on June 26, 2026 – Legislative Council), which raised several technical and legal criticisms regarding the text of the draft law. Since this opinion is merely advisory in nature, it does not prevent the legislative process from moving forward. However, it is expected that the final text of the law will undergo significant amendments, particularly during the proceedings in the Chamber of Deputies.
For employers, our recommendations remain unchanged: preparations should not be postponed until the final version of the law is adopted. Compliance with the forthcoming pay transparency legislation is a long-term process which, from a legal perspective, should begin with an inventory of existing positions, updating job descriptions to accurately reflect employees’ actual duties and thereby facilitate comparisons between employees performing work of equal value, aligning job titles across organisational charts, employment contracts and job descriptions, establishing clear evaluation criteria and remuneration policies, documenting pay decisions, ensuring recruitment processes comply with the new requirements, developing the capacity to respond promptly to employees’ requests for information, and, last but not least, engaging in meaningful cooperation with social dialogue partners.
We also remind employers that, for organisations employing at least 150 employees, the first mandatory gender pay gap reporting obligation is expected, in line with the Directive, to fall due in June 2027, based on data relating to the 2026 calendar year.
By Ioana Cazacu
