For the first time, a company will be fined according to the Contravention Code for violating labor legislation and paying workers off-the-books. The State Fiscal Service (SFS) recorded the violation in April and the company was recently found guilty in court and slapped with a fine of 50,000 lei, IPN reports.

According to a press release of the SFS, the employer was paying workers cash-in-hand. In addition to the fees, taxes and penalties applied by the SFS, the Labor Inspectorate prepared a contravention report and filed it in court.

The SFS warns all employers that the controls will continue and in order to avoid being fined, they should make sure they respect all the relevant laws.

During the first six months of the year, the SFS discovered numerous violations of the labor legislation – lowered wages, income taxes and contributions to the social and medical insurance funds. The SFS applied penalties in 116 cases, including some where the wages and related taxes hadn’t been calculated correctly. As a result of these taxes, fees and penalties, the public budget will gain about 8.9 million lei, of which 2.22 million have already been collected.

The raids also found 126 people working of-the-books and receiving unreported wages.