The Minister of Transportation and Road Infrastructure, Iurie Chirinciuc, promised that salary arrears at the Moldovan Railways (CFM) will be paid until the end of the year. The official was attending an event organized by CFM when the company's employees began questioning him about the unpaid wages, IPN reports.

“We have 2 weeks since we took over the Railways. We cannot pay in 2 weeks the arrears for 3 months. We must do our utmost to make everything right – everybody should do his job and all will be OK”, said Chirinciuc. He explained that the salary arrears are for June, July and August.

The minister thinks it is possible to accumulate money to pay the wages. So far, problems were caused because of the monopoly of 3-4 companies on cargo transportation. “We are restoring equal conditions for all carriers and our task is to recover the lost customers”, explained the official.

Railway employees have protested several times in June and July because of the unpaid wages. One time, they blocked the railroad for several minutes, delaying the Chisinau-Moscow train. The former director claimed that the wages couldn't be paid because of the drop in cargo transportation, caused by the conflict in Ukraine, where many of the goods transiting Moldova came from or were bound to.