Is a volunteer agreement mandatory, and where is it registered?
Law no. 78/2014 on volunteering requires a written agreement for every volunteer, and the obligation falls on the host organisation. Where it gets registered is the most common confusion: not with a public authority, but in a register you keep yourself.
Short answer
- Yes, the volunteer agreement is mandatory, and the obligation to conclude it falls on the host organisation.
- Written form, in Romanian, is mandatory for the agreement to be validly concluded.
- The volunteer agreement is not notarised and is not entered in any public register.
- It is registered in the volunteer register kept by the host organisation, before the activity starts.
- The agreement is not filed with the labour inspectorate, not entered in Revisal or REGES, and not declared to ANAF.
What the law says
- Art. 11 para. (1) of Law no. 78/2014: the agreement must be concluded in writing, in Romanian.
- Art. 11 para. (4): before the activity starts, the agreement is registered in the volunteer register kept by the host organisation.
- Art. 11 para. (3): one copy of the agreement is handed to the volunteer before the activity starts.
- Art. 11 para. (5): the agreement must be accompanied by the volunteering sheet and the volunteer protection sheet.
- Art. 11 para. (6): the mandatory clauses are the identification data of the parties, the description of activities, the time and period, the rights and obligations, the professional and health requirements confirmed by documents, and the termination conditions.
- Art. 10 para. (1): an agreement concluded to avoid an employment contract or a paid civil contract is voidable, and volunteering is unpaid.
- Art. 23^1, in force since 21 April 2024: breaching art. 11 paras. (4), (6) and (10) carries a fine of 10,000 to 20,000 lei, established by labour inspectors.
- Art. 15 para. (2): accident and illness insurance may be taken out at the request of the volunteer, so it is not mandatory.
- Art. 3 letter e), read with art. 13 of the Labour Code: a volunteer may be a person aged 16, or 15 with the consent of a parent or legal representative.
Practical examples
- An association taking on 30 volunteers for a charity marathon signs 30 agreements and enters all of them in its own register, numbered 1 to 30, the day before the event.
- A 15-year-old volunteer handing out packages at a social centre signs the agreement together with the written parental consent, attached to the file.
- A foundation that keeps no volunteer register risks a 10,000 lei fine at an inspection, even if every agreement exists signed on paper.
Common mistakes
- The volunteer starts working and the agreement is signed "tomorrow" — a direct breach of art. 11 para. (4).
- Only the agreement is signed, without the volunteering sheet and the volunteer protection sheet.
- The organisation sends the agreement to the labour inspectorate, although the law requires no filing at all.
- A volunteer agreement is used for work that is in fact paid — the agreement becomes voidable.
- The register is filled in retroactively at year end, when nobody remembers the real start date.
How 4ong helps
- Keeps the volunteer register required by art. 11 para. (4), with automatic numbering and the registration date.
- Generates the agreement with every mandatory clause from art. 11 para. (6), plus the volunteering sheet and the protection sheet.
- Blocks assigning a volunteer to an activity if there is no agreement registered before the start date.
- Keeps each volunteer file in one place: agreement, annexes, parental consent, health documents.