The young people in Moldova mainly do not know their employment rights owing to the information gap in education institutions. A part of them neglect the importance of the individual work contract and choose to work without such a document.

In a news conference at IPN, Angela Ciocarlan, head of the Ungheni Association for Children and Youth “Faclia”, said the employers profit from the fact that an individual work contact is not signed, while the young people do not realize the added value of a signed work contract.

Angela Ciocarlan stated that both the employer and the employee are not fully open to sign the individual work contact, which is the basic employment document that enables to negotiate a number of conditions. The large companies usually provide work contracts, even if these contracts do not meet all the conditions of a standard contact. The situation is worse at small companies.

Stela Stratila-Sarbu, head of the Youth Council of the National Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova, said that in principle the employers comply with the Labor Code provisions concerning work contracts. But the future employees often neglect the clauses on remuneration, working hours and obligations when they negotiate the contract and this can lead to difficulties. “The employee does not pay attention to the indicated salary, which may be different from that discussed initially. The obligations may be also different,” she stated.

She recommended the young people to be very attentive when they sign the work contract and, if the company has a trade union committee, to ask it to provide advice as it is hard to obtain the revision of the individual work contract, especially through court.

As to the information gap in education establishments, Stela Stratila-Sarbu said there are no optional classes where the young people could receive training about work relations. The process of teaching such knowledge must be interactive and the possible situations at work should be simulated.

The young people in Moldova represent 40% of the jobless people. Almost 75% of them do not know their employment rights or know them partially.

The Ungheni Association for Children and Youth “Faclia” implements the project “Decent work for young people – improving the social-economic situation of the young people in Moldova by empowering the youth and civil society” in the districts of Falesti, Ungheni, Calarasi and Causeni in 2012-2014. The project is developed in partnership with the National Confederation of Trade Unions and the Dutch foundation CNV Internationaal, with financial support from the EU.