Agriculture trade unions seek higher minimum salary

The agriculture trade unions requested the Government and Parliament to hasten the adoption of laws on the prices, minimum subsistence level and the rise in the minimum salary up to the minimum subsistence level. The request was incorporated into a resolution adopted in the sixth congress of the National Federation of Agriculture and Food Trade Unions “Agroinsind”, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Federation’s head Sergiu Bernevec said in a press briefing that over the five years since the last congress, the agriculture trade unionists worked in very difficult socioeconomic conditions that were amplified by the financial and economic crisis, the frequent natural disasters and the political instability. They all led to a decrease in the real incomes of the salary earners and in the number of workplaces. Sergiu Bernevec said that the guaranteed minimum salary in the real sector of the economy is lower than the minimum subsistence level. “The salaries in agriculture are among the lowest in Moldova. Among the causes are the low prices of the agricultural products, especially on the home market. The market is low, while the volume of agricultural products is very large. As a result, the prices on the internal market are low and the salaries in the sector are also low,” he stated. The trade unionists consider there should be worked out bills for implementing the plan of action aimed at minimizing the illegal salary payment practices and abrogated the amendments to the law on allowances for temporary incapacity for work that are to the salary earners’ detriment. They also demand raising the amounts allocated for the sanatorium treatment of employees and increasing the minimum pension up to the minimum subsistence level. The minim salary in agriculture is 1,100 lei.