What should a company do when it receives a notification from a law enforcement officer requesting to attach the earnings of one of the company’s employee?

The answer to the above question is quite simple: the company must respect the law enforcement officer’s order, garnish the employee’s earnings and transfer the amounts to the law enforcement officer. Off course, it must observe the regulations regarding the amount that can be garnished (up to 1/2 of the net monthly income for the amounts due as support obligations or children allowance and up to 1/3 of the net monthly income for the amounts due for any other debts).

The situation can become complicated if the company later receives another notification from the same law enforcement officer announcing that the attachment of earnings order is temporarily suspended by the court of justice as a result of a contestation filed by the employee.

There are two different solutions adopted by both jurisprudence and legal specialists. According to the first opinion, when receiving the notification regarding the temporarily suspension of the attachment, the company doesn’t have reasons to retain any amount from the employee’s salary. The critics declare against this opinion that paying the entire salary is equivalent to abolishment of the attachment and in the presented situation the attachment is only temporarily suspended.

The second opinion states that the company should continue to retain the specific amount form the employee’s salary, as the attachment was not abolished, being only suspended. The critics declare against this opinion that the temporarily suspension has no effect if the company continues to garnish the employee’s earnings.

We consider that the second opinion is the correct one, with the following argumentation and amendments. The attachment is not abolished, it is only temporarily suspended. In this respect, when receives the notification regarding the temporarily suspension, the company must continue to garnish the employee’s earnings, but the amounts should be kept by the company (for the entire period of suspension the company have no obligation to transfer the amounts to the law enforcement officer). This way the attachment is valid (not abolished), but part of its effects are suspended – the amounts are not transferred to the law enforcement officer. In the end, the company will transfer the amount either to the law enforcement officer or to the employee, depending on the court’s decision regarding the employee’s contestation.

Ilie Cimpoieru, Attorney at law
S.C.A. Deleanu Vasile – Law office