The Jakab Antal House has received Sheltered Workshop status

Good news for institutions and businesses employing at least fifty people:

If you are unable to employ people with disabilities, you no longer have to transfer the equivalent of their minimum wage to the state. You can instead use it to purchase goods or services from sheltered workshops — a group that now includes the Jakab Antal House in Csíksomlyó.

Sheltered workshop status recognizes and promotes the rights of people with disabilities. Based on this principle, the Jakab Antal House, operated by Caritas Alba Iulia, has involved several people with disabilities in the unit's operations and provides them with employment opportunities — which is how it earned its sheltered workshop status. Under a law passed in 2006 (Law 448, Article 78), public institutions and businesses employing more than 50 people are required to ensure that at least 4% of their staff are people with disabilities. If this is not possible, the equivalent of their minimum wage must be paid to the state each month. The law also allows institutions and businesses that are unable to employ people from disadvantaged backgrounds to instead purchase goods or services from a unit holding sheltered status, thereby supporting its operation, rather than transferring the amount to the state. As a sheltered workshop, the Jakab Antal House offers businesses and public institutions employing at least 50 people the opportunity to exercise this legal right and use the relevant amount for catering or restaurant services, or for organizing events at the Jakab Antal House.

The Jakab Antal House is a Sheltered Workshop, meaning it provides employment for people with disabilities.

According to guidance issued by ANAF (the Romanian tax authority), we share the following excerpt:

Employers may choose to pay 50% of their monthly contribution to the disability fund toward products and services produced through the work of people with disabilities employed at authorized sheltered workshops.

In accordance with Article 78(3) of the law. Under Decree 448/2006, companies as well as authorities or state-owned companies employing at least 50 people are required to employ people with disabilities in a proportion equal to at least 4% of their total workforce.

Otherwise, they may choose from the following obligations:

a) pay monthly into the state budget an amount equal to the nationally guaranteed minimum gross basic salary (as of January 1, 2025, this is 4,050 lei under Decree 935/2019), multiplied by the number of positions not filled by people with disabilities;

or pay monthly into the state budget an amount equal to at least 50% of the nationally guaranteed gross basic salary, multiplied by the number of positions not filled by people with disabilities, plus the difference up to the amount specified in point a), in order to acquire, on a partnership basis, products or services produced through the work of people with disabilities employed at authorized sheltered workshops.

The monthly contribution employers must pay into the disability fund does not fundamentally change; however, employers may choose to spend half of the amount due on purchasing products and services produced through the work of people with disabilities employed at sheltered workshops, so that only 50% of the amount goes to the state budget.