Automated social insurance liability triggered by recognition of special working conditions

The High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ) dismissed the preliminary reference submitted by the Bucharest Court of Appeal as inadmissible, leaving the lower court to resolve the matter without a binding directive from the supreme court. The dispute arose from a conflict of labor and social security law, specifically concerning whether the legal recognition of work performed in special working conditions under Article 22 of Law No. 104/2003 automatically obligates the employer to pay the corresponding social insurance contributions. The ICCJ did not address the substantive legal question, instead finding the request for a preliminary ruling procedurally defective under Article 521(3) of the Code of Civil Procedure, thereby rejecting the appeal for a unified interpretation of the law on this specific labor benefit issue.