Measures should be further taken to directly subsidize salary earners when the activity is suspended and the employees are made redundant or are in technical unemployment. The subsidy should be at least equal to the minimum guaranteed salary in the real sector of the economy – 2,935 lei, the National Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova says in a letter addressed to acting Prime Minister Aureliu Ciocoi, chairman of the National Extraordinary Public Health Commission, IPN reports.
According to the trade unions, this measure is aimed at maintaining the relationship between employers and employees and at enabling to easier return later to the normal activity of economic units.
Also, when the activity of kindergartens and schools is restricted, a mechanism for supporting the parents whose children attend such institutions should be worked out. The young people are another category that was powerfully affected by the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Confederation’s chairman Oleg Budza, to keep the young people on the domestic labor market, the starting of own businesses should be promoted and supported broadly, including by providing preferential loans at a reduced interest rate and engaging young people in re-qualification and professional formation programs.
“The salary remains an important source of income and its absence significantly affects the living standards of employees. Therefore, the growth pace of salaries should be maintained and the accumulation of salary arrears should be prevented,” stated Budza, being quoted in a press release of the Confederation.
Among other measures proposed by trade unions are to simplify the procedures for being registered at the National Employment Agency and identify solutions to increase the budget for unemployment benefit, to step up the measures to ensure security and safety at work, primarily so as to prevent infection at the workplace, to promote collective negotiations and to regulate difficult situations created by the pandemic by signing collective work contracts.
