The Right To Retirement In The 'Revolutionary' Vision Of The Romanian Constitutional Court

• Author: Teodor Narcis Godeanu
• Pages: 279-283

THE RIGHT TO RETIREMENT IN THE "REVOLUTIONARY" VISION OF

THE ROMANIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

Associate professor Teodor Narcis GODEANU1

Abstract

The study analyzes the general lega l regime of pension rights, in the view of the Constitution and the current

legislation, referring to the recent decision of the Constitutional Court no. 387/2018, which allowed an exception of

unconstitutionality and it was found that the provisions of art. 53 par. (1) letter c) of the Labo r Code are constitutional

insofar as the phrase "standard age conditions" does not exclude the possibility for women to request the continuation

of the individual labor contract under identical conditions with the man until the age of 65 years. Such a solution leads

to the conclusion that the woman can, without being obliged to continue her activity until the a ge of 65, thus eliminating

a rule which has long been in the legislation, considered by some specialists to be discriminatory, also emb raced by the

Constitutional Court by that decision.

Keywords: the right to retirement, standard retirement age, minimum contribution period, employee, other

categories of staff, woman, male, discrimination.

JEL Classification: K31, K38

1. The right to retirement: general legal regime

The Romanian Constitution2, revised3 and republished4, regulates in art. 47 the living

standard. Through its content, which has undergone some additions through the Revision Law no.

429/2003, he establishes what constitutes, according to the specialized doctrine, the right to a

decent standard of living, which includes the citizen's right to reasonable living conditions, capable

of ensuring a decent, civilized level.5

Paragraph (1) of art. 47 also establishes an obligation on the part of the State to take

measures for economic development and social protection, but also to impose an implicitly

expressed right by means of a formula capable of providing citizens with a decent standard of

living. We find that although the text does not expressly refer to the right, such a qualification is

understood to mean the fulfillment of any obligation having the purpose of satisfying a right,

namely the right to a decent standard of living.

The second paragraph enshrines those rights whose guarantee is an obligation for the state

and whose realization ensures a decent standard of living for the citizen. The first of these is the

right to retirement, followed by the right to paid maternity leave, the right to health care in state

healthcare establishments, the right to unemployment benefit and other forms of public or private

social insurance provided by law, to social assistance measures, according to the law.

Thus, as we have already stated, the first in the list is the right to retirement, which is due,

to a great extent, to the employee, the public servant, the dignitary and other categories of staff

(with some peculiarities to the soldiers, members of the liberated professions, etc.).

The development of the legal regime of the right to retirement is found in the Labor Code,

approved by Law no. 53/20036 and in Law no. 293/2010 on the unitary pension system7. We note

that, at the time of writing this study, it is notorious that the Government in office is in the process

of finalizing new legislation in the field.

1 Teodor Narcis Godeanu - Faculty of Juridical, Administrative and Economic Sciences, „Sp iru Haret” University, Romania,

narcis@godeanu.eu.

2 Published in the Official Gazette no. 233 of November 21, 1991.

3 Through the Law on revision no. 429/2003, published in the Official Gazette no. 758 of October 29, 2003.

4 The republication was made in the Official Gazette no. 767 of 31 10 2003.

5 M. Constantinescu, A. Iorgovan, I. Muraru, E.S. Tănăsescu, Constituția României revizuită-comentarii și explicații, All Beck

Publishing House, Bucharest, 2004, pp.97-99.

6 Republished in the Official Gazette no. 345 of 18 May 2011.

7 Published in the Official Gazette no. 852 of 20 December 2010.