Social workers complain on their professional day about being underpaid

The workers of the social protection field celebrate on Sunday, September 17, their professional day. On this occasion the Chisinau’s social workers were invited by local authorities to a festivity held in the Army’s House. They were awarded diplomas and 500 lei money prizes. The Chisinau’s Department for Social Assistance (DAS) has 370 employees. 280 of them are social workers. Daily, these help about 3000 lonely elders and disabled people, by buying medication and food and paying bills on their behalf. The social assistant Galina Hripuncov says that the job of a social worker is morally difficult – it is hard to gratify the whimsical elders’ wishes, who need more time to comprehend or memorize certain things. “It is more difficult to find common language with old people than to carry full bags for them. Patience is needed prior to physical strength,” Galina Hripuncov says. Almost half of the social workers from the capital city have a more than 10 year work experience. Parascovia Tcaci works since 1995. The main problem of a social worker is the miserable wage, Parascovia Tcaci believes, whose salary is not exceeding 450 lei. Besides, the clothes and footwear are frequently wearing out. Head of DAS, Eugenia Ceban, says that local authorities failed to include into the budget for the current year means to acquire work clothes and footwear for social workers. Though, this is planned for the next year’s budget. Eugenia Ceban added that a proper attitude towards social workers is required in order to have a high quality social assistance. Often an elder’s allowance is higher than a social worker’s salary, head of DAS underlined. The number of social assistants is planned to increase in 2007 by approx. 130 persons, including for Chisinau’s suburbs. At present, one social worker takes care of 10-12 persons.