What happens when an employer needs a particular task to be carried out over the course of a working day, but does not want the entire workload to be concentrated on a single person? One solution may be ‘job sharing’, i.e. the division of the same task between two employees.
Although the concept is used in other jurisdictions, the Labour Code does not regulate job sharing as a distinct category of employment relationship. This does not, however, mean that such a model cannot be used in Romania. From a legal perspective, the challenge lies in identifying the existing contractual instruments that permit such an arrangement and, above all, in complying with the limits imposed by labour legislation.
How can such a model be legally structured?
In practice, job sharing can be organised through two individual part-time employment contracts. For example, work that would normally require an employee to be present for eight hours a day can be divided between two employees, each working four hours.
Each employee has their own individual employment contract with the employer. However, the two contracts may be structured in such a way that the work associated with the same role or post is distributed between the two employees, including in terms of working hours and responsibilities.
Articles 103 et seq. of the Labour Code regulate the individual part-time employment contract, whilst Article 105 sets out the elements to be taken into account in the case of such a contract, including working hours and the allocation of the work schedule.
Consequently, job-sharing may represent a way of organising work, without in itself constituting a new type of individual employment contract.
Where do the difficulties arise?
The first issue is the delineation of responsibilities.
Two employees may carry out similar tasks or hold the same post, but the employer must be able to identify, where necessary, which responsibilities fall to each individual. Job descriptions may contain shared duties, but the practical organisation of work must allow, as far as possible, for individual contributions to be determined.
This distinction becomes important when delays, errors or losses occur. The fact that two people share the same task does not mean that they are automatically equally liable for any problem.
The second issue is working hours.
If, for example, the first employee works from 08:00 to 12:00 and the second from 12:00 to 16:00, this arrangement must be reflected accordingly in the contracts and in the records of working hours. If there is an overlap, this must also be included in the work schedule.
The employer is obliged to keep a daily record of the hours worked by each employee, specifying the start and end times of their shift.
The risk arises when the model looks correct on paper but no longer corresponds to reality. If an employee on a four-hour shift consistently ends up working six or seven hours to complete the work taken over from a colleague, the issue is no longer simply one of internal organisation, but of compliance with working time regulations.
Who is responsible for a shared task?
The specific feature of this model is that a task started by one employee can be continued by another. This raises practical questions: who is responsible for an error, who checks the document, who manages the deadline and who communicates the result to the client?
The answer must stem from the way in which the employer has organised the work. It is therefore useful for internal procedures to set out the handover process, including the documents, information and deadlines that must be passed on from one employee to another.
This organisation is all the more important in tasks where decisions are taken sequentially or where the work spans several days.
With regard to financial liability, the Labour Code stipulates that an employee is liable for material damage caused to the employer through their own fault and in connection with their work. Where the damage is caused by several employees, each person’s contribution must be assessed in the light of the specific circumstances.
Consequently, job sharing does not automatically transform individual liability into joint liability.
What happens when one of the employees is absent?
Another issue that needs to be anticipated is business continuity.
If one of the two employees is on annual leave, sick leave or in any other situation where they are unable to carry out their duties, the other cannot simply take on an additional workload that exceeds the limits of their own contract.
The employer should establish in advance how such situations are to be managed: through the temporary redistribution of certain tasks, by utilising other resources within the team, or through a contractual arrangement appropriate to the specific situation.
The same issue arises if one of the two employees terminates their employment. The other employee’s contract does not automatically become a full-time contract. The employer will need to decide whether to recruit another person, reorganise the work or, in accordance with the applicable rules, amend the existing employment contract.
What should the employer keep in mind?
Before implementing a job-sharing arrangement, the employer should ensure consistency between individual employment contracts, job descriptions, working hours, time records, internal procedures and the actual way in which the work is carried out.
It is equally important that rules regarding the handover of work, the management of absences, performance appraisal and the delineation of responsibilities are established before the scheme is put into practice.
Essentially, two part-time contracts are not sufficient. A functional mechanism must be established, in which the documentation and the reality of the work are in harmony.
The risk for the employer arises not so much from the fact that two people share the same role, but from a situation where the formal organisation of work no longer corresponds to the way the work is actually carried out.
Conclusion
Job sharing can be a solution for making work more flexible and can be implemented, under certain conditions, using mechanisms already in place in Romanian labour law.
The legal challenge, however, does not lie in the existence of two part-time contracts, but in ensuring consistency between the contractual documents and the reality of the work.
The more complex the role, the more important the rules become regarding working hours, the handover of tasks, the continuity of the role and the delineation of individual responsibility.
Ultimately, the key question an employer should be able to answer is not merely whether two people can share a role, but how this sharing can be organised so that the desired flexibility remains within the bounds of Romanian labour law.
Hategan Attorneys provides integrated legal advice on labour law, including for projects involving the reorganisation and flexibilisation of employment relationships, as well as expertse in areas such as commercial law, technology and data protection, supporting Romanian and international companies in identifying and managing legal solutions tailored to their business needs.