Trade unionists demand that the authorities found a Labor Tribunal. According to the vice president of the National Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova Oleg Budza, the given topic was discussed by the administration of the legislature, but the authorities said there is yet no money available in the budget, Info-Prim Neo reports. At a meeting of the members of the Confederation’s Executive Bureau with trade unionists from Chisinau municipality on January 13, Budza said that the Labor Tribunal should be an independent organization in Moldova’s legal system. He said that such a tribunal is needed because many work-related disputes are now inappropriately solved and the employee is blamed for the conflict in most of the cases. “We were told to find a way to mediate the disputes, but not all the conflicts can be solved by mediation,” Oleg Budza said. According to him, the Labor Tribunal’s personnel would include representatives of salaried employees and employers as well as legal experts in this area, Budza said. He also said that there are yet no specialists in Moldova that would know the Labor Code very well and would be able to equitably settle work-related disputes. The Confederation’s vice president said that the fact that 440 of the 500 work accidents in Moldova are blamed on the employee is strange and dubious. “The employer that sometimes breaks the law is not blamed. In many cases, the Labor Inspectorate and the employer reach an agreement after a work accident is investigated,” Oleg Budza said. Asked to say what kind of agreement, he stated that “it is difficult to comment”. In another development, Oleg Budza said that the world crisis could influence the jobless rate, but Moldova’s unemployment fund is not prepared. He also said that a law regulating the holding of strikes should be formulated in 2009 and that it should be closely monitored how the authorities keep their promise to raise employees’ salaries.