Trade unions threaten with protests

More than 120 trade union organizations from all over Moldova intend to stage large-scale protests on June 7, when it is the Trade Unionist’s Day. A decision to this effect was taken in a meeting of the General Council of the National Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova, Info-Prim Neo reports. “We do not agree with the remuneration conditions and the amendments made to the Labor Code, which disadvantage the salary-earners. We have demanded that our rights be respected for many years, but the authorities do nothing. It’s time for the trade unions to take measures and express their dissatisfaction,” said the Confederation’s vice president Petru Chiriac. He said that the real incomes of the population do not increase even if the state budget revenues last year rose by 20%, while the GDP growth was 6.9%. The trade unionists demand immediately adopting the law on the minimum subsistence level, raising the minimum salary to the minimum subsistence level, increasing the minimum guaranteed salary in the real sector, adopting the law on prices so as to regulate the prices and tariffs set by the monopolist companies. They also say that measures should be taken to combat tax evasion, stop the promulgation of amendments to the law on allowances for temporary work incapacity, increase the expenditure for the treatment of salary-earners in sanatoriums, and adopt new regulations concerning the distribution of tickets to sanatoriums. The trade unions consider there should be worked out a common pensioning system and annulled the stipulations allowing increasing the required length of service before retirement from 30 to 35 years. The National Confederation of Trade Unions brings together over 500,000 members of 29 national trade union organizations.