Descriere
This article examines employees’ right to obtain legal interest and inflation rate adjustment for the compensation granted under Article 80 paragraph (1) of the Labour Code in cases of unlawful dismissal. It demonstrates that such compensation represents a pre-existing salary claim arising from the individual employment contract and does not originate from the court judgment, which is declaratory rather than constitutive. Consequently, legal interest accrues from the due date of each monthly salary installment unlawfully withheld, and not from the date of the judgment or its finality. The study clarifies the legal distinction between salary indexation (a preventive measure of wage policy) and inflation adjustment together with legal interest (remedial legal instruments for delayed pecuniary obligations). Relying on High Court of Cassation and Justice Decision No. 2/2014 (Appeal in the interest of the law), the article confirms that legal interest may be cumulated with inflation adjustment, as they pursue distinct legal purposes: preserving the real value of the monetary claim (damnum emergens) and compensating the loss of use of money (lucrum cessans).
