Law No. 219/2015 on social economy provides for the
establishment of new types of enterprises, namely social enterprises and social
enterprises of insertion.
The law went into effect in August 2015, setting forth that
social enterprises can be represented by: cooperative societies of 1st degree,
credit cooperatives, associations and foundations, unions of employees, unions
of pensioners, agricultural companies, as well as any other categories of legal
entities that meet the definition and principles of social economy, as set out
in this law.
According to the law, the social economy
contributes to the development of local communities, creating jobs and the
involvement of persons belonging to vulnerable groups in social activities and
/ or economic activities, facilitating their access to community resources and
services.
Law no. 292/2011 on social assistance defines "vulnerable
group" in art. 6 letter p) as individuals or families who are at
risk of losing their capacity to meet the needs of daily living because of
cases of disease, disability, poverty, drug addiction or alcohol or other
situations that lead to economic and social vulnerability.
The notion of "social enterprise"
presented by the law refers to any private legal entity engaged in the social
economy, which holds an attestation of social enterprise and complies with the
national economy’s principles.
The status of a social enterprise is recognized by granting
a certificate of social enterprise, certificate that is issued at the request
of the legal entities listed above and is valid for a period of 5 years, with
possibility of extension.
The criteria to be met by the social enterprise in order to
obtain the certificate are:
◦ acting in a social and / or general interest of the
community;
◦ allocates at least 90% of the profit to the social purpose
and the statutory reserve;
◦ undertakes to submit the assets remaining after
liquidation to one or more social enterprises;
◦ applies the principle of social equity to employees,
ensuring fair wage levels, between which there can’t be differences exceeding the
1-8 ratio.
The obligations of social enterprises are as follows:
◦ communicates any changes of the constitutive acts or the
acts of establishment to the employment agency, within 15 days of the change;
◦ communicates the activity reports and annual financial
statements to the employment agency;
◦ publishes, within 3 months from the end of the calendar
year, the annual social report on the developped activity and annual financial
statements in the Unique Registry of evidence of social enterprises.
Social enterprises of insertion, on the other hand, are
considered those social enterprises that:
◦ permanently have at least 30% of staff belonging to the
vulnerable group, so as the cumulative working time of these employees
represents at least 30% of the total working time of all employees;
◦ target the fight against exclusion, discrimination and
unemployment through social and professional insertion of disadvantaged people.
Furthermore, the insertion social enterprises have an
obligation to ensure, for employees who belong to the vulnerable group, accompaniment
measures to guarantee the professional and social insertion.
Among the measures of accompaniment, the legal framework on
social economy mentions: information, counseling, access to forms of training,
adapting the workplace to a person's ability, accessibility of the workplace
according to the needs of individuals as well as other measures aiming to
support professional and social insertion.
Similar to social enterprises, the status of social
enterprises of insertion is certified by awarding the social label, which
represents a certificate valid for a period of 3 years starting from date of
issue, as well as a specific element of visual identity which mandatorily
applies to manufactures, executed works or documents that demonstrate the
performance of a service.
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