In brief

  • Sick pay for ordinary illness and off-duty accidents is calculated in tiers, by the number of days on the certificate: 55% of the calculation base for certificates of up to 7 days, 65% for 8 to 14 days and 75% for more than 15 days.
  • The joint order of the Ministry of Health and the National Health Insurance House adds four new lines, J1.2 to J1.5, to the employers’ monthly reporting form, one for each rate plus one for amounts resulting from recalculation.
  • In practice, employers must now report the amounts separately for each tier, instead of a single aggregated figure as before.
Act: Joint Order MS/CNAS no. 909/1,231/2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 606 of 24 July 2026
In force from: 24 July 2026

Sick leave for a five-day cold is no longer paid at the same rate as leave for surgery that keeps you at home for two weeks, and from now on the difference also shows up in the form employers send monthly to the health insurance house. The Ministry of Health and the National Health Insurance House have supplemented, through Joint Order no. 909/1,231/2026, the rules implementing Government Emergency Ordinance no. 158/2005 on sick leave and health insurance benefits. It is the second joint order of the two institutions published in July 2026, after the one through which the therapeutic protocols for dozens of reimbursed medicines were updated.

The order itself is short and looks purely technical: it adds four positions to a reporting annex. But those four positions are the accounting mirror of a change that concerns every employee in Romania, introduced last year through article VII of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 89/2025. From a single rate applied to the calculation base, the system moved to three rates, depending on the length of sick leave for ordinary illness or off-duty accidents. Until now, that differentiation had nowhere to be recorded in the employer’s monthly return. From 24 July 2026, it does.

What it changes in practice

In annex no. 10 to the rules, which is the form through which employers declare the amounts to be recovered from the National Single Health Insurance Fund, four new letters are inserted after letter J1.1. J1.2 covers benefits for temporary incapacity for work resulting from applying the 55% rate to the calculation base, for sick leave certificates issued for a period of up to 7 days. J1.3 corresponds to the 65% rate, for certificates issued for a period between 8 and 14 days. J1.4 corresponds to the 75% rate, for certificates issued for a period of more than 15 days. J1.5 is a separate line, for benefits relating to sick leave certificates for ordinary illness that result from recalculation, applying one of the three rates.

For the payroll department the effect is immediate: reporting can no longer be done on a single line. Each certificate must be assigned, according to the number of days for which it was issued, to one of the three tiers, and the amounts are added up separately. Line J1.5 solves a frequent practical problem, that of certificates recalculated later, for example when the calculation base or the number of days is corrected.

For the employee, the order changes nothing in itself, because the rates were already in force. What it changes is transparency: the amounts on the payslip now have a clear counterpart in official reporting, and any misclassification becomes easier to spot, both for the insurance house and for the employee.

One point often missed deserves emphasis: the thresholds relate to the period for which the certificate was issued, not to the total number of sick days in a year. An employee who takes three separate certificates of 5 days each receives 55% for each of them, not 75% once the total passes 15 days.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

  • Reporting is now broken down by rate: before this order, annex no. 10 had a single line, J1.1, for temporary incapacity benefits from ordinary illness; now there are five.
  • Each tier has its own line: 55% for certificates of up to 7 days, 65% for 8 to 14 days, 75% for more than 15 days.
  • Recalculations have their own line: letter J1.5 covers amounts resulting from recalculating certificates for ordinary illness, whichever rate applies.
  • The 2018 rules are aligned with 2025 legislation: the order brings the reporting form into line with article VII of Emergency Ordinance no. 89/2025, which introduced the differentiated rates.
  • Neither the rates nor the calculation base change: the order does not alter entitlements, only how they are recorded in the employer’s return.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • It removes a real inconsistency: the differentiated rates had applied since 2025, but the official reporting form did not recognise them, forcing employers to improvise.
  • It makes the classification of each certificate verifiable, both for the insurance house and for an employee who wants to understand why a given amount was paid.
  • The dedicated line for recalculations prevents corrected amounts being mixed with the original ones, a frequent source of settlement mismatches.
  • The order is short and imposes no new administrative duties beyond splitting the amounts, so the compliance cost for employers is small.

What remains a problem

  • The order enters into force on the date of publication, 24 July 2026, in the middle of a reporting month, with no explicit transition period for updating payroll software.
  • The text does not clarify how to treat certificates issued before entry into force but reported afterwards, leaving interpretation to the county insurance houses.
  • The tiered system, which the order merely reflects in accounting terms, discourages short sick leave, precisely what is recommended for seasonal contagious illness.
  • The order says nothing explicit about continuation certificates, that is extensions of the same condition, even though in practice these raise the most classification questions.

Practical advice

  1. If you are an employee: check the rate applied on your payslip, not just the amount. For a certificate of up to 7 days the correct rate is 55% of the calculation base, for 8 to 14 days it is 65%, and for more than 15 days it is 75%.
  2. If your condition needs more than a week of recovery: discuss the realistic duration with your doctor. The thresholds apply to the period written on the certificate, so a medically well-sized certificate also has a direct financial effect.
  3. If you work in payroll: update your software so that it generates the amounts separately for J1.2, J1.3, J1.4 and J1.5. Aggregated reporting on the old J1.1 line no longer matches the form.
  4. If you have had certificates recalculated: report the resulting amounts under letter J1.5, not under the original rate tier, to avoid settlement mismatches.
  5. If you are a small employer without dedicated software: ask your county health insurance house for the updated form before your first return, so you do not file the old format.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of my pay do I get on sick leave?
For ordinary illness and off-duty accidents, the rate applied to the calculation base depends on the period for which the certificate was issued: 55% for up to 7 days, 65% for 8 to 14 days and 75% for more than 15 days. Other categories of sick leave, such as occupational disease, work accidents or maternity, have their own rules.
Do the rates apply per certificate or to the yearly total?
Per period for which the sick leave certificate was issued. The order expressly refers to „sick leave certificates issued for a period of up to 7 days”, „between 8 and 14 days” and „of more than 15 days”.
Does this order reduce my benefit?
No. The differentiated rates were introduced by article VII of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 89/2025. Joint Order MS/CNAS no. 909/1,231/2026 only creates, in the employers’ reporting form, the lines where those amounts are declared separately.
What is annex no. 10?
It is the form in the rules implementing Emergency Ordinance no. 158/2005 through which employers declare monthly the amounts representing health insurance benefits, in order to recover them from the National Single Health Insurance Fund.
What is line J1.5 for?
For benefits relating to sick leave certificates for ordinary illness that resulted from a recalculation, applying the 55%, 65% or 75% rate to the calculation base. They are reported separately from the original amounts.
When does it apply from?
From the date of publication in the Official Gazette of Romania, 24 July 2026. The order sets no later date of entry into force and no transition period.

Original text of the legal act

The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official language of publication.

The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania

Official Gazette of Romania no. 606 of 24 July 2026 16 pages PDF, 117 KB the act starts on page 15

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.