The Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family suggested modifying the Law on the Control of Entrepreneurial Activities so that the State Labor Inspectorate can carry out unplanned inspections at companies suspected of discriminating against employees on different grounds. Currently, these inspections must be announced beforehand, IPN reports.

In a roundtable meeting, Deputy Minister of Labor Ruxanda Glavan said that complaints about the discrimination of employees by employers are submitted to the Ministry, but the State Labor Inspectorate cannot check the entrepreneurs unexpectedly as they do not have such powers. The inspectors must warn the employers about inspections five days beforehand and this is an impediment to combating discriminatory practices at the workplace. In such a situation, it is impossible to identify cases of violation of the labor legislation, including of illegal payment of salaries.

“We want the inspectors to be able to perform unplanned inspections. Then, it will be possible to test the mechanisms for combating illegal labor and illegal payment of salaries,” said Ruxanda Glavan.

The labor inspectors can only warn the employers about deviations, but cannot impose penalties. This is the duty of the governmental Nondiscrimination Council. The employees who consider that their rights were violated can also file complaints to the Council.

According to the results of a research by the Journalistic Investigations Center, the women in Moldova are more tolerant to the employers than the men and seek help from the Labor Inspectorate four times more seldom when their rights are violated. In 2012, only one woman of ten informed the Labor Inspectorate when they were illegally fired or weren’t paid maternity leave.