The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of the Republic of Moldova and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA Moldova) signed a memorandum of cooperation to promote family-friendly initiatives and policies at the workplace. One of the objectives is to work out an initiative to certify companies that will implement family-friendly policy standards so that they benefit from support from the local and central public authorities and foreign development partners, IPN reports.
In the event held to sign the memorandum, CCI president Sergiu Harea said the memorandum centers on several cooperation dimensions. One of them is to raise the private sector’s awareness of the necessity of implementing family-friendly policies. The memorandum also envisions partnerships and exchanges of good practices for Moldova and international companies.
Initiatives will be worked out to adjust the normative and legislative frameworks in different areas, such as the flexibility of the work program, leave, leisure time, etc. “The Chamber of Commerce and Industry is a platform that ensures a public-private dialogue between the public authorities and the business community. Our institution has a number of sectoral committees within which we discuss these policies,” stated Sergiu Harea.
“We will also discuss particular proposals to help parents who need childcare, to support parents who raise children and want to be hired at a company during paternity or maternity leave, to ensure flexibility in the relations with employers and no only.”
UNFPA Moldova Resident Representative Nigina Abaszada said the employers are helped to identify solutions and overcome the challenges related to human resources. “By signing this memorandum, for a five-year period, we try to look into the future, identifying particular areas and methods of work in these fields,” noted Nigina Abaszada.
Last year, a number of companies that managed to implement family-friendly policies at the workplace were awarded. Studies show that financial benefits are obtained with the implementation of family-friendly initiatives at the workplace. “We see that the people want to work in companies that indeed take care of them. The organizations take care of the environment in which the people develop and this fact has an impact on businesses,” stated the UNFPA Moldova Resident Representative.
