Minister of Labor, Social Protection and Family Valentina Buliga presented her final report of activity. She said that in 2014 the Ministry managed to increase the wages for some categories of employees and the social aid for disabled people and also improved the legislation in this field, IPN reports.

According to her, the minimum wage was raised to 1000 lei, which increased by 15% the salaries of 107,000 employees. The wages of school teachers increased by 20%, while for some categories the raise reached 35%.

Valentina Buliga noted that a Bill on occasional labor was adopted in order to reduce informal economy. Another bill was developed to encourage the employment of the unemployed and the 2014-2016 plan of actions to support and reintegrate returning migrants was adopted. They will now be eligible to receive social aid if necessary.

The Ministry also launched an online job market to help Moldovans abroad find a job home and 700 people have already applied for the available jobs. Buliga highlighted that for the first time the authorities have alloted money for the rehabilitation of disabled people so that they could find a job.

Meanwhile, 635,000 pensioners received bonuses to their pensions. 7000 people from the Security Area received monthly allocations. 35,000 families received social aid and 80,000 received financial support for paying the heat bills during the cold period. The Ministry launched an awareness campaign, teaching the people about the importance of social aid and encouraging them to contribute by accepting job offers.

2014 has also seen the Law on the social protection of children in risk situations come into effect and the opening of the assistance hotline for children, which has already received 14,000 calls. Additionally, the Ministry organized 17 missions of repatriating children with Moldovan citizenship left without care abroad. Overall, 33,000 children have been repatriated from Russian and Ukraine.

Buliga said that the protection of disabled people was a priority in 2014 and 47,000 persons with disabilities received monthly aid. Moreover, the number of personal assistants for people with special needs was increased by 940, but this is still way below the necessary 10,000.

She bid good luck to the next Minister, expressing her hope that he or she will show strong will and that the social field will be a priority for the next Parliament.