The Trade Unions Federation SINDLEX said that for the first time in the history of Moldova the forced work in the police bodies is over given that the authorities this year allocated 10 million lei for paying the police officers for the additional working hours. The Federation’s chairman Mihail Lacu told a news conference that until now the police worked tens of additional hours without being paid and this was considered forced labor, IPN reports.

Mihail Lascu said that during the last several years the trade unions demanded that the afterhours work should be paid, but all in vain. “The additional hours worked by the police were offset by nonworking days only partially. According to our data, the additional working hours a week were by tens of hours longer than the official working hours. The police chiefs argued that they do not have money to pay these additional hours. Recently, following the made efforts, including by the Ministry of the Interior, the first 10 million lei ever was allocated for paying the policemen for the additional work done. Surely, this sum covers the worked additional hours only partially, but today we can say that the forced work in the police bodies is over,” said the head of SINDLEX.

The Federation considers that for 2016 the Ministry should allocate enough financial resources for covering all the related costs. “We ascertained that the situation is worrisome because young enthusiastic people who want to serve the motherland come to work in the police, but leave in two-three or maximum five years because they cannot cope with such a salary. We called on the acting Premier to make approaches for the salaries of police officers to be raised by 30% next year,” stated Mihail Lascu.

SINDLEX also insists on the adoption of a bill that would provide for covering all the medical needs of the police employees and for offering them tickets to health spas.