Act No. 139/2003, on Fixed Term Employment aims to improve the quality of fixed-term work by ensuring the application of the principle of non-discrimination and by establishing a framework to prevent abuse arising from the use of successive fixed-term employment contracts or relationships.
Fixed-term workers are not to be treated in a less favourable manner than comparable permanent workers in respect of employment conditions, solely because they have a fixed-term contract or relation unless different treatment is justified on objective grounds.
The use of successive fixed term contracts is to be limited. The Act prohibits the extension or renewal of fixed term agreements in the case they last continuously for a period longer than two years, unless otherwise provided for in law. It is nonetheless allowed to renew fixed term contracts of managerial personnel which have been completed for a period of four years or longer, for the same period each time.
A new employment contract is deemed to replace a previous one if it is extended or if a new fixed-term contract is established between the same parties within three weeks from the completion of the previous agreement.
