Trade unions seek higher pays for police officers

Trade unionists demand increasing the salaries of police officers by another 25% from April 1, 2011 and resuming paying nominative compensations for food and rent from January 1, 2011, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communiqué from the National Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova. According to the leader of the trade union “Demnitate” Mihail Lascu, about 2,000 employees of the Ministry of the Interior resigned following the recent amendments to the legislation on retirement, under which the police officers can retire after working for 25 years not 20 years as until now. Mihail Lascu said any reform must take into account the social aspect as well. Many of the employees of the Ministry of the Interior who worked for 20 years in the police prefer to withdraw in reserve as the amendments provide that the law is applied retroactively. He also said that the initiative to amend the law was adopted without the approval of the Ministry of the Interior and the trade union. This is a violation to the Law on Trade Unions, which says that the laws that are social in character are worked out and adopted with the participation and approval of the two. Thus, the presidium of the Board of “Demnitate” decided to convene an extended extraordinary plenary meeting of the trade union’s National Council on March 26. Members of the trade union from all over the country will be attending the meeting. The trade union “Demnitate” (“Dignity”) brings together employees of the law enforcement bodies.