On 26 June, Parliament voted, in the first reading, on a package of changes strengthening protection for employees with children: paternity leave will count toward the pension record, the Labour Code gains the notion of an “employee with family responsibilities,” and single parents can no longer be sent on night shifts without their written consent. Parliament’s announcement ties the bill to the ratification, at the same sitting, of an international labour convention.
What exactly changes
The bill, drafted by the Ministry of Labour, has three parts. First: the paternity benefit joins the list of non-contributory periods that count toward a pension — periods when no contributions are paid, but which are nevertheless added to the record, alongside military service or child care up to age 3. Second: the “employee with family responsibilities” appears in the Labour Code, a category defined broadly in the bill — not only parents, but also those who support a spouse, a parent, a child with disabilities or a close relative. Third: protection against night work is extended, so that a single parent with a child under 16 cannot be assigned a night shift except at their own request.
All three come against the backdrop of ratifying International Labour Organization Convention No. 156, which requires states to ensure that people with caring responsibilities can work without being discriminated against. The bill also aligns with a European directive on the balance between work and family life.
The confusion to avoid: mothers or fathers?
The statement speaks of “maternity and paternity benefits,” which may suggest that mothers now gain the right to stop losing the years of leave toward their pension. That is not so. The bill’s explanatory note is explicit: the maternity-leave period is already credited toward the contribution record. The real novelty concerns fathers — paternity leave, of up to 15 days, will also be taken into account.
Hence a sober judgement of the effect. Fifteen days add about half a month to a father’s record, and non-contributory periods count toward length of service but are not actual contributions — so they do not raise the amount of the pension. It is a gesture of alignment with international standards and a recognition of fathers’ role, rather than a major material change in anyone’s pocket.
The local calculation: guarantees for ever fewer
This is where the part that concerns us directly comes in. A law about young families is being voted just as young families vanish from the district. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, 1,393 children were born in Ungheni district in 2018 and only 732 in 2025 — a drop of 47.5% in seven years. In everyday terms: around two births a day now, against almost four seven years ago.
The trend does not come alone. The district’s population has fallen by more than a fifth in a decade — 74,507 residents in 2025, by preliminary data, against 96,292 in 2014 — and the number of marriages has dropped by a quarter between 2018 and 2024. Guarantees for parents are welcome, but the picture they land in is one in which the pool of potential beneficiaries thins from year to year.
The other side: how far the guarantee reaches
Beyond the modest material effect, there is a limit of coverage. Protection toward the contribution record applies only to insured, salaried workers. In a mostly rural district, with many people working informally or gone abroad, a good share of the theoretically eligible fathers are not formally employed — and so do not get to use the provision. The real benefit is therefore smaller than the annual number of births would suggest.
There is also a question mark we flag honestly: the text approved by the Government in May provided for entry into force on 1 January 2027, whereas Parliament’s statement, after the first reading, speaks of three months from publication in the Official Gazette. These are two different wordings, a sign that the deadline may have changed along the way.
This article is based on Parliament’s statement, the text and explanatory note of the bill published by the Government, Law No. 156/1998 on the public pension system, ILO Convention No. 156, and the public positions of the National Trade Union Confederation. The data on births, population and marriages in Ungheni district belong to the National Bureau of Statistics; the calculation of the 47.5% fall in births between 2018 and 2025 is the newsroom’s. The number of beneficiaries and the concrete effect on pensions could not be extracted from the bill’s impact estimate.