The trade union members develop their skills during the second session of the Trade Union School in Moldova

The role of the trade union in legal and social-economic protection of employees. With this generic, for the 3 days, April 25-27, the second session of the Trade Union School of Moldova is being held within the CNSM Labour Institute, with 27 trade union members, representatives of 11 national-branch trade unions centres.

One of the basic topics of the current session of the Trade Union School of Moldova is the safety and health at work, the national and international legislative framework in this field, as well as the organization of the work of the Safety and Health Committee and the Labour Inspectorate of the Trade Unions.

The opportunity of this issue, in the view of the trainer Gheorghe Burbulea, the main inspector of the Labour Inspectorate of Trade Unions, is determined by the implementation of the reforms in the field of safety and health at work, the expansion of the foreign capital investment area, the continuous modification of the legislation on labour relations, which requires a new approach to the work of the trade unions at the present stage, the organization of the management for the real protection of the rights and social and labour interests of the employees, trade union members, within the social partnership.

In this regard, Gheorghe Burbulea mentioned that the participants in the session are informed about the basic principles, the trade union’s activity directions in connection with the transition from the system of management of safety and health into work based on compensation to the one concentrating on the principle of preventing accidents at work. At the same time, the trainees will be able to share the experience gained within trade union organizations with regard to occupational safety and health.

In his speech, trainer Eugen Covrig, head of the CNSM Legal Department, addressed the issue of individual and collective labour conflicts, spoke about methods of mediating and solving them, initiated the students with the methods and legal forms of organizing a public meeting, a strike. He noted that the role of the trade union in the process of solving conflicts is becoming increasingly important, because the parties have the opportunity to agree faster and more productively on a mutually acceptable solution, preferring the instrument of social partnership rather than the court.

In this context, Eugen Covrig emphasized the main legal particularities concerning the solving of individual labour conflicts, to detail certain aspects regarding the solving of collective labour conflicts through the institution of mediation, to describe the effects of timely settlement or the delay of individual litigations, collective labour conflicts , referred to legal procedures in terms of organizing public meetings and strikes.

Conflict settlement was also the subject of another trainer, Mihail Dutca, senior counsellor of the Federation of Trade Unions “SANATATA”, who specified that conflicts at different levels, including in work collectives, require a new approach and another way of training the trade union staff. In his opinion, now it is not the question of eliminating the contradictions between interests and opinions, as they are sources for development, but it is required to promote them in a positive, constructive manner as an integral part of the common human values. Thus, he proposed at the session to help the students of the Trade Union School of Moldova to understand more deeply the nature of the conflicts, their positive and negative particularities, to teach them methods of communication with conflicting persons.

We would like to remind that the “Trade Union School of Moldova” is an educational project, implemented by the CNSM since 2010, aiming to develop the skills and knowledge of the trade union members.

Department of mass media and international relations