The companies that bring in foreign workers say that Romania is cutting the quota just when the Romanian economy is in greater need of foreign labor

The Employers' Association of Labor Importers is concerned about what it calls “contradictory information” on the foreign worker quota for 2026.

The Employers' Association of Labor Importers claims in a statement that although initially, during the meeting of the Tripartite National Council, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan mentioned the possibility of a contingent of 90,000 workers, the Secretary General of the Government, Radu Oprea, later conveyed that the Executive is considering establishing a ceiling of 75,000 non-EU workers.

This decrease comes at a time when more and more companies, including those from the SME area, continue to report an acute staff shortage.

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At the same time, the Patronatul Importatorilor de Forță Mănă (PIFM) rejects the idea that reducing the quota would protect employees at risk of being laid off, given that the fields in which non-EU workers are recruited are not the same as those targeted by the restructuring of the public system.

“If we study the work groups for which Asian workers are brought, we notice that there are fields in which personnel from the public system are never employed. Such a measure will not really protect the laid-off employees, but limits the ability of employers to cover their needs”, said PIFM president Romulus Badea.

Business requires information

In addition, the Government plans to introduce major changes this month regarding the digitization and simplification of immigration procedures.

According to the official releases of the Ministry of Labor and the statements of the Secretary of State Ciprian Văcaru, the new normative acts would reduce processing times and modernize the system as a whole, adapting it to the current realities of the labor market.

The Labor Importers' Association supports this initiative, but says that the Executive must publish the new quota as early as December. “If this law is implemented from January 1, we assume that there will be a transition period, and over this transition we would not want the lack of the contingent to overlap,” added Romulus Badea.

The employer warns that the announced legislative changes, which come with a number of immediate consequences, must include a transition period sufficient to process the thousands of files already submitted.

It is essential that the new rules do not lead to the automatic cancellation of files submitted online, as such a situation would affect both employers and workers who have invested time and money in relocating to Romania.

“It would be a profoundly unfair situation”

“During the transition period, if the law is published for example on January 8, all work permit files submitted online and not physically received, even if they are scheduled, could be canceled. Basically, we have done recruitment and all the legal steps to bring in workers, and these people, who have legitimate expectations and have already incurred expenses, could remain in the air. It would be a profoundly unfair situation,” says Romulus Badea, president of the Employers' Association of Force Importers Work.

The Patronatul Importatorilor de Forță de Mancă, a member of IMM Romania, emphasizes the importance of open dialogue between the authorities and recruitment agencies. The expertise accumulated over decades of activity, during which tens of thousands of foreign workers were brought in, can prevent crisis situations and ensure an efficient legislative transition. “On many occasions, we have presented to the authorities the necessary steps for a qualitative process, which would solve the vulnerabilities encountered in practice. The authorities have their role in the immigration process, and cooperation with us is essential for the success of these reforms,” ​​Romulus Badea also conveyed in the statement.

PIFM reaffirms its openness to institutional dialogue and expresses its confidence that the Romanian state understands the critical importance of this sector. “We are people, and the resource with which we operate is the most precious. We must be part of this change, not just witnesses to it,” concluded the president of the Labor Importers' Association.