March 31 (SeeNews) - The operations of 37% of Romanian companies have been fully or partially interrupted since the country declared a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, consultancy PwC Romania said on Tuesday.
Some 20% of companies have reduced their activity since the coronavirus outbreak started, according to the PwC Romania HR Barometer conducted by PwC Romania at the end of March.
In this context, 27% of the survey respondents plan to avail themselves of technical unemployment support measures.
The vast majority of companies want to keep their employees and reduce the negative effects on them, PwC Romania Tax and Legal Services leader Daniel Anghel said. Unfortunately, the solutions are limited and their effect is difficult to estimate in a situation where incomes are falling sharply within a very short timespan, he added.
Some 19% of surveyed companies said their activity is not affected by the pandemic but estimate a 25% drop in turnover. As many as 10% said they are unable to pay salaries.
The PwC Romania HR Barometer survey was carried out between March 23-26, based on the information provided by 91 companies in the sectors of consumer goods, automotive, transport, pharmaceutical, IT&C, financial services, energy, distributors and outsourced services, among others.
According to the study, 19% of companies introduced mandatory work from home for all employees. At the same time, some 27% of the companies whose business does not allow their employees to work from home say they will apply for technical unemployment support. Some 18% are still undecided whether to apply because the technical unemployment provisions are unclear.
"Employers are looking for different ways to reduce costs to stay on the market. However, at present only 11% are considering dismissals," Oana Munteanu, PwC Romania Senior Manager People & Organization, said.
Romania has so far confirmed 2,109 cases of the coronavirus infection and 68 deaths.
The Romanian authorities declared a 30-day state of emergency on March 16 in order to be able to tackle the coronavirus disease outbreak more efficiently.