The Policeman’s Association “Pro Motus” plans to sue the Ministry of Home Affairs for not paying the police officers for overtime and for offering them rest days instead of these. Members of the Association said that as the salaries of police officers are low (an ordinary police officer gets 5,000-6,000 lei a month) and overtime is not paid, some of the policemen think about taking bribe.

In a news conference at IPN, lawyer Vladimir Sheremet said the Policeman’s Association “Pro Motus” filed complaints to the Ministry of Home Affairs and to the Government, but they received only general responses. Functionaries of the State Labor Inspectorate said they cannot determine if the legislation is obeyed in this case as they do not have such powers.

According to the lawyer, Minister of Home Affairs Pavel Voicu and deputy chief of the General Police Inspectorate Marin Maxian admitted to deviations, but no actions were taken to make sure that overtime is paid.

Vladimir Sheremet noted some of the payrolls were falsified and the data there do not coincide with the hours worked by some of the police officers. The rights of the police officers and provisions of the Labor Code are flagrantly violated.

“Pro Motus” chairman Andrei Don said the decision to no longer pay the one-off allowance of 16,000 lei to police officers who got infected with COVID-19 at the workplace is discriminatory as the health workers continue to receive this allowance. Some 35% of the police officers became infected with SARS-CoV-2 at the workplace.

Andrei Don also expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that representatives of all the political parties say they will fight corruption, but none of the election contenders intends to raise the salaries of police officers.

“Pro Motus” member Andrei Staryi said Minister Pavel Voicu offered the police officers who worked overtime to take days off, but this is against the Labor Code. The police trade union is passive and does not safeguard the rights of police officers.