Costs can be cut by other ways than burdening entrepreneurs, employers

The employers demand not approving in final reading the amendments whereby the employers are obliged to pay allowances for three days of sick leave to employees. Contacted by Info-Prim Neo, the chairman of the National Employers Confederation Leonid Cerescu said the economic entities must create appropriate working conditions for the employees, but the methods used by the authorities do not encourage this. ”We consider it is inadmissible to put an additional burden on the taxpayers when the economic entities work in unfavorable conditions. Instead of taking measures to diminish these costs by other ways, they chose the easiest way. They forced the employers to pay two more days of the sick leave. This is incorrect and leads only to the diminution of the workplaces. The economic entities will not be able to bear these costs,” said Leonid Cerescu. He also said that these changes to the law were promoted as a result of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, which insisted that measures should be taken to reduce the costs incurred by the state when paying allowances for temporary incapacity for work. “This a justified demand, but these costs may be reduced by other measures. Our opinion wasn’t taken into account. We demand stopping the approval of the mentioned project. The costs are indeed high, but this does not mean that the economic entities are to blame,” said Leonid Cerescu. A meeting of the Bureau of the National Employers Confederation was scheduled for January 10 to discuss the future steps of the Confederation. The legislative body voted in first reading a bill that obliges the employers to pay allowances for three days of sick leave, as against one at present. According to the authors of the bill, the aim is to make the employers to create appropriate working conditions.