A large number of salary earners were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The restrictive measures imposed to contain the pandemic led to the diminution of economic activity in most of the sectors of the national economy and the worsening of the socioeconomic situation in the country. The National Trade Union Confederation of Moldova (CNSM) seeks long-lasting measures to ensure the social protection of the citizens, IPN reports.

The CNSM ask to purchase vaccines from different authorized producers, depending on the population’s requests, to allow employees to be away from work on the vaccination day, to compensate the salary earners for the costs incurred to do COVID-19 tests from the mandatory health insurance funds.

The trade unions also request to provide vouchers/tickets to the people affected by the pandemic, which could be used to buy national food products, to reduce the VAT rate on goods and products made on Moldova’s territory, to clear the salary arrears towards employees of Moldova’s Railways, to work out a mechanism for supporting families with children when the education institutions are closed or the education process is moved to the online.

The CNSM asks to digitize the medical networks so as to limit the movement of persons with chronic diseases to medical institutions for receiving prescriptions for compensated drugs, to extend the list of compensated drugs by including those used to treat COVID-19 at home and to recover at home after catching the infection, to offer tickets to sanatoriums for medical rehabilitation, primarily to persons who had COVID-19.