Labour and Social Protection Minister says one quarter of Moldova's employees work illegally

Chisinau, 7 July /MOLDPRES/ - One quarter of Moldova’s employees work illegally. Data to this effect was unveiled by Labour and Social Protection Minister Marcel Spatari. The minister today launched an information campaign titled, We switch to white, and encouraged citizens to be legally employed.     

At a news conference, the minister said that the initiative’s goal was to inform the audience about the benefits of the legal labour and the system of encouragings and subsidies, in order to help both the employees and employers to give up the undeclared work.  

„It is necessary that there is a relation based on trust and cooperation between the citizen and the state. The employees who work illegally are deprived of the right to pension, of maternity leave, medical services, allowances or fully paid rest leave. The citizens who carry out unregistered work do not enjoy social and economic protection. At the same time, a deficit is created at the state social insurances budget. If all employers pay the social taxes, the minimum pension would be 3,500 lei. This year, the state compensates a sum of more than 5 billion lei (250 million euros), in order to be able to provide the pensions and other social payments,’’ Marcel Spatari said.  

At the same time, the official stressed that a national plan on combating the unregistered labour, which includes more stimulatory measures, was elaborated at present. ‘’The authorities support the development of a mechanism of financial encouraging of the companies which employ citizens legally. We are set also to make the transition to the legal labour in agriculture. Another measure is the digitalization of employees’ registers and creation of working conditions for the people with small children. This process of transition is long-lasting; nevertheless, we are set to implement all needed measures, in order to legalize the citizens’ labour,’’ Marcel Spatari stressed.     

Following controls, the State Labour Inspectorate annually establishes about 100 cases of illegal work. According to the authorities, its number is to be of at least 1,000 cases.  

Photo: Labour and Social Protection Ministry