The employees of a state-owned irrigation enterprise based in Briceni said they haven’t been paid for a year already. The overdue salaries were estimated at about 2 million lei and the enterprise’s administration promises these will be paid. The workers gave a news conference in the Parliament Building alongside MPs of the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform”, IPN reports.
Alexandru Slusari said the situation created at this enterprise shows complete disrespect for the people. A number of 73 employees didn’t get their pays since last February. When the ACUM Bloc was in power, they tried to solve the problem, the overdue salaries for two-three months since November 2018 being paid in summer. But when the Government was changed, the initial situation came back.
Pavel Pilipetski, sector head at the enterprise, said the revenues during a year exceeded 3.3 million lei. The overdue salaries came to slightly over 2 million lei. This money is sufficient to pay the overdue salaries and even the taxes. Two of the employees who weren’t remunerated passed away.
Dumitru Balan, who has worked at the enterprise in Briceni for 30 years, said the period during which they weren’t paid salaries has never been so long. Earlier, the salaries were only one or two months overdue.
MP Inga Grigoriu stated solutions should be identified for the people to collect their pays.
Contacted by IPN for a comment, the enterprise’s acting director Nicolae Oberșt said the salaries haven’t been paid since March 2019 and partially for last February. The state budget transfers cover up to 40% of the enterprise’s budget. The rest of the revenues are collected from irrigation activities. In 2017, the enterprise earned about 3.4 million lei, but in 2018 the weather was rainy and the revenues were of only 1.6 million lei. They made multiple approaches to the authorities, complaining about the difficult situation of the enterprise at the times of different governments, but all in vain. Besides salaries, the enterprise must cover current costs and make investments and this is impossible without state support.
In a Facebook post, Parliament Speaker Zinaida Grechanyi said the salary arrears at the state-owned irrigation enterprise in Briceni will be cleared in the nearest future. “The necessary approaches were made and money was identified and the people will get their pays soon. I want to note that someone is trying to speculate on the sorrows of people. Nothing was done while the Government had been headed by Maia Sandu during five months. A number of problems accumulated in the period and solutions are now being looked for to each case apart,” she wrote.
