Legal suspension of the individual labour agreement

The suspension of the individual labour agreement in case of temporary incapacity for work has also effects on the individual labour termination when the physician intervenes during the remaining period until termination, even if the parties have agreed on the time of termination.
 
The individual labour agreement is suspended by law in case of leave for temporary incapacity for work – this is not a matter on which the employer or the employee can decide, it is a case of legal suspension provided by the Labour Code. Therefore, once the employee announces his/her sick leave at the workplace, the employer will have to suspend the individual labour agreement starting from the start date stipulated by the sick leave certificate, to operate this in Reges within the timeframe stipulated by Government Decision 295/2025 and to intervene to process the suspension end when the sick leave ends. 
 
An important provision of the Labour Code that should not be overlooked concerns certain effects of the individual labour agreement suspension:
 
”In case of suspension of the individual labour agreement, all the terms associated with its conclusion, amendment, execution or termination of the individual labour agreement are suspended, except for the cases in which the individual labour agreement is terminated by the law itself”.
 
If the parties have agreed to terminate the individual labour agreement, for example, the intervention of such sick leave until the end of the employment relation has precisely the effect of the provision cited above: the suspension of the termination term, thus, the individual labour agreement will terminate only after the employee returns from the sick leave. 
 
The same applies in the case of sick leave occurring during the notice of resignation/dismissal – the notice period will be suspended due to temporary incapacity for work. 
 
The only situation in which the sick leave will not have an effect on when the individual labour agreement terminates is when we are talking about a legal termination – as it is the case of the fixed-term individual labour agreement, which will terminate on time regardless of what happens in the meantime (and, of course, unless the parties have agreed on an extension period). 
 
The employer who does not comply with the suspensive effect of the sick leave, practically, infringes the law provisions.