Benefits of to-be-built Social House of Constructors discussed in Chisinau

Owners of construction firms, representatives of employers’ organizations and labor unions in the field are discussing in Chisinau the opportunity of creating the Social House of Constructors (CSC), a structure to be founded by social partners in the field, Info-Prim Neo reports. Laurentiu Plosceanu, the president of the Romanian Builders Association (ARACO) and concurrently the head of a similar House in Romania, said the initial intention of the project was to financially support construction workers during wintertime. In other words, this saved them from temporary unemployment. Ten years since inception, the Romanian CSC has grown to provide other opportunities too. Now, its partners may benefit from letters of guarantees when bidding, for example, without having to withdraw valuable funds from operation in order to secure their participation in auctions. Plosceanu added that the House is considering providing social protection during summertime, too, when the weather is too hot for some works. Another advantage is that CSC is an efficient instrument of gaining access to EU funding, notably for staff training. According to the Romanian CSC president, the annual membership fee of an employee is around 12 percent. “It is a small contribution, taking into account that an employee can get back twice of thrice the protection premium”, Plosceanu added. The president of the Moldova-based CONDRUMAT Federation, Pavel Caba, expressed his regret that not all the builders understand the need to join efforts to protect employees’ and employers’ interests. “As our Romanian colleagues have told us, to gain access to the European funding we should first partner up”, said Caba. He added that on the basis of the Social House, other entities could the established later, like the Health House, the House of Trades, and other. Similar structures are necessary in other fields as well. “CSC is a solution to support employees, so that they don’t flee the country. Hands in constructions are in very big demand abroad. Many of them have already fled to Romania, now that it is an EU member. Preparations for the Sochi Olympic Games are in full swing, which generates a big demand of manpower in constructions, and we risk losing more workers”, said Petru Pripa, the head of the municipal mortgage agency “AMIC”. According to him, the membership fee issue usually scares the entrepreneurs in Chisinau, but they will agree to join CSC when they realize its benefits.