Employers demand punishing employees who accept to wok illegally

The National Employers Confederation of Moldova insists on imposing penalties on the employees who accept to work illegally, without paying taxes to the state. “We accepted the bill with amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses, which penalize the employers who pay salaries illegally, but demanded that the salary earners who accept this practice be also punished,” Vladislav Kaminski, the head of the Confederation’s Internal and External Relations Division, has told Info-Prim Neo. According to Vladislav Kaminski, all the ministries agreed, but the Ministry of Justice refused to accept this provision. In the last meeting of the National Commission for Collective Consultations and Negotiations, the Confederation demanded re-including the employers’ condition in the bill. Contacted by Info-Prim Neo, the chairman of the National Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova Oleg Budza said the trade unionists have nothing against the punishment of the employees who work illegally as they do not pay taxes to the national budget and aren’t members of trade unions. According to the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family, a mechanism was worked out for identifying the persons who break the law. The changes made to the Labor Code oblige the employers to present a model of the personnel structure to the local labor inspectorate and to give the employees a nominal permit enabling access to the workplace. The action plan for combating the illegal payment of salaries and illegal labor was approved ten months ago. The trade unionists consider that the related measures are implemented very slowly.