Volunteering Law

Law no. 339/17 July 2006 for modifying and completing the Volunteering Law no. 195/2001

CHAPTER I-GENERAL PROVISIONS

Art. 1. - This Law regulates the participation of natural persons to volunteer actions organized in Romania by non-profit, public and private legal persons.
Art. 2. - For the purposes of this Law:
a) Volunteering is the public interest activity carried on by any natural person, on its own initiative, for the benefit of others, without receiving any material compensation;
b) Public interest activity is the activity carried on in domains such as social services and assistance, protection of human rights, health, culture, education, science, humanitarian actions, religion, philanthropic actions, sports, environment protection, social and communitarian actions and other similar domains;
c) The host organization is a non-profit, public or private legal person which manages the volunteer activity. In accordance with the nature of the activity carried on, its complexity, the involved risks, the resulting impact and the involved responsibility, the parties may conclude a volunteering agreement;
d) The volunteering agreement is a free of charge convention, concluded between a natural person ("volunteer") and a legal person ("host-organization"); according to this agreement the former obliges himself to carry on a public interest activity without receiving a material compensation;
e) The volunteering beneficiary is the natural or legal person for whose benefit the volunteering activity is carried on. The host organization may be identical or different from the volunteering beneficiary;
Art. 3. This law is based on the following principles:
a) The participation as a volunteer, on the basis of the free, express consent;
b) The active involvement of the volunteer in the community life;
c) Carrying on the volunteering excluding any material compensation from the beneficiary‘s activity;
d) Persons may participate in the volunteering activities on the basis of equality of chances, without any discrimination.
Art. 4. - The isolated volunteer activities, carried on sporadically, independently from the reports with legal persons established in Art 1, on the basis of familial, friendship reasons, do not represent the object of this Law.
Art. 4.1. - Local authorities support the action of carrying on of the volunteering period, granting priority to the activities addressing to teenagers from misfortunate areas and categories.
Art. 5. - (1) It is forbidden to conclude a volunteering agreement with a view to avoiding the conclusion of an individual work contract; or, accordingly, a civil contract for services provision or other civil contract with certain obligations for providing those services.
(2) They are considered to be null all the volunteering contracts concluded by legal persons mentioned in Art. 1, when applying this Law, if these volunteering contracts are concluded in order to avoid the conclusion of: an individual work contract; or a civil contract for services provision or another civil contract with certain obligations.
(3) Participating as a volunteer cannot replace the military service or other alternative formula which replaces the military service and cannot represent an equivalent for a paid job.
(4) Voluntarilor cetăţeni străini le este garantată rezidenţa pe durata stagiului de voluntariat.
Art. 5.1. - (1) For the purposes of the communitarian action program "Youth", a young volunteer is the person aged between 18-25 years, that concluded, abiding the law, a volunteering contract on a limited period, with a view to developing the skills and the personal and intercultural experience, contributing at the same time at the community welfare.
(2) The young volunteer participates in another state member of the European Union, other than the one where he lives, or in a third state to a non-profit, unpaid activity, which is important for the community and has a limited duration of maximum 12 months, as part of project recognized by that state and by the European Community.
(3) The communitarian probations of volunteering for teenagers, in accordance with the established duration, are differentiated between long-term probations (3 months to 1 year) and short-term probations (3 weeks to 3 months).
(4) For the communitarian action program "Youth", the host-organization covers the internal transport expenses of the young volunteer, board and lodging. On the basis of funds from the European Commission it may be provided also the external transport and a tax free travel allowance, representing pocket money, during the entire volunteering probation.
(5) At the end of the volunteering probation, as part of the communitarian action program <>, the European Commission will release a nominal diploma that certificates the provision of activity as a volunteer, and also the acquired experience and skills.

CHAPTER II- VOLUNTEERING CONTRACTS

Art. 6. - (1) The volunteering is carried on the basis of a concluded agreement, written under the sanction of absolute nullity, between the volunteer and the host-organization, under the conditions of contractual freedom of the parties and observing the provisions of this Law.
(1.1) The host-organization is compelled to keep an evidence of the volunteers, the duration and type of activity carried on by these.
(2) If the parties agree that a volunteering contract is auspicious, this is concluded in 2 copies, one of which is compulsory to be kept in the accounts of the legal person.
Art. 7. - At least the following rights of the volunteer ought to be stipulated in the volunteering contract:
a) Carrying on the activity in accordance with his ability and availability;
b) The host-organization must ensure that the activities are carried on under the legal conditions of labor protection, in accordance with the nature and characteristics of that activity;
c) The host-organization must ensure the volunteer, under the legal conditions, against any possible accident or illness risks or other risks brought about by the nature of the activity; if the insurance does not exist, the host-organization is liable for any damage suffered by the volunteer while carrying on the volunteering activity, if the damage was not caused by the volunteer himself. The volunteer may give up this right; if so his decision must be written and deliberate;
d) At the end of the volunteering probation, the host-organization must release a nominal diploma which certificates the provision of activity by the volunteer, and also the acquired skills and experience;
e) Depending on the agreement concluded between the host-organization and the volunteer, it can also be established that the host-organization should reimburse the expenses paid by the volunteer to carry on the activity, under the conditions stipulated in the contract. If the volunteer gives up this right, this is equivalent with a liberality act.
Art. 8. - The volunteering contract must stipulate at least the following obligations of the volunteer:
a) to accomplish the tasks received from the host-organization;
b) to keep confidential the information they have access to while they carry on the volunteering activity;
c) to participate in the training courses organized, initiated or proposed by the host-organization for a better carrying on of the volunteer’s activity;
d) the volunteer is liable for the moral or material damage brought about to the host-organization while carrying on his volunteering activity;
Art. 9. - While carrying on the volunteering contract, the volunteer subordinates to the management of the legal person with whom he has concluded the agreement.
Art. 10. - The contractual obligations of the volunteers cannot be carried on by representatives of the volunteers.
Art. 11. - The liability for the non-performance or improper performance of the volunteering contract is subject to the regulations stipulated in the Civil Code.
Art. 12. - If during the performance of the volunteering contract appears, independently of the will of the parties, a situation which hinders the performance of the volunteer’s obligations, the agreement will be nenegotiated, and if the situation renders the contract impossible to be further carried on, this is justly cancelled.
Art. 13. - The renegotiation of the contract takes place after the written request of one of the parties, under the provisions stipulated in the contract.

Art. 14. - The unilateral denouncement of the contract takes place at the initiative of one of the parties and it must written and indicate the reasons. The conditions of the denouncement are stipulated in the contract, the established term for a previous notice being of 30 days.
Art. 15. - The litigations resulting from the execution, modification, ending or canceling the volunteering contract are dealt with by judicial instances, if the parties cannot solve them on an amiable way. The actions resulting from the volunteering contract are exempted from the stamp duty.

CHAPTER III – FINAL PROVISIONS

Art. 16. - From the provisions of this law are exempted the fire-fighter volunteers for civil firefighters services, established in accordance with the Government Ordinance no. 60/1997 regarding the defense against fire, approved with modifications, by Law no. 212/1997, with the subsequent modifications.
Art. 17. - At the contests for employment, if two or more candidates obtain the same result, the public institutions and authorities, and also the private ones may grant supplementary points to the persons that has one or more nominal diplomas of volunteering, which acknowledges his volunteering activities, and also the acquired experience, if these represent selection criteria.
Art. 18. - This Law enters into force after 60 days from its publication in Romania’s Official Monitor, Part I.

(Adopted on 19 March 2001, published in the Official Monitor of Romania no. 206, 24 April 2001, completed and modified by the Ordinance no. 58, 22 August 2002, published in Romania’s Official Monitor 462, 30 August 2002 and updated by Law no. 339/2006).