Trade unions require labor inspection to be in conformity with Conventions of International Labor Organization

In June 2013, National Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova (NCTUM) forwarded to International Labor Organization (ILO) a claim against the Government of the Republic of Moldova, referring to some provisions of Law No. 131/2012 on state control over entrepreneurial activity within the purview of which the activity of State Labor Inspectorate had come, this fact being a contradiction or even a breach of ILO Convention No. 81on labor inspection (ratified by the Republic of Moldova). In this regard, the Government of the Republic of Moldova had rejected proposals of NCTUM as early as at the stage of working out a bill on amendments to the Law on State Labor Inspectorate No. 140/2001, which was aimed to subject this supervising authority to purview of Law No. 131/2012.

Thus, according to ILO Convention No. 81, labor inspectors are provided with a guarantee for independent activity in exercising state control over labor legislation observance, and namely with: free access to all the institutions and enterprises liable to be inspected in any time of the day or night without any preliminary notification of the employer, performing any kind of examination, control or investigation considered necessary to make ascertain that legal provisions are respected, etc.

All these rules of international law, the Republic of Moldova had joined, have an aim to provide an efficient, prompt and independent state control in order to protect labor rights and interests of employees.

However, the dispositions of Law No. 131/2012 on State Labor Inspectorate having been extended, this specificity of state control over employees’ labor rights and interests observance was practically omitted. Or, principles of international law, related to labor inspection, were ignored.

In such a way, in conformity with Law No. 131/2012 while executing control over observance of employees’ labor rights and interests by the employers, State Labor Inspectorate has to meet some certain conditions, which contradict ILO Convention No. 81. For instance, to notify the employer liable to inspection at least in 5 working days beforehand, to execute control only on the base of the authority director’s decision, commissioned to exercise control, not to exceed the term of 10 calendar days for control execution, irrespective of the reason and type of it, not to control the same employer more than once a calendar year, etc.

As a sequence of trade unions’ claim against the Government of the Republic of Moldova submitted to ILO, state competent authorities made it clear that they had been disposed to carry out a review in order to bring national legislation into compliance with normal standards, in other words, to take State Labor Inspectorate out of purview of Law No. 131/2012. But unfortunately, these intentions stood still without any progress.

With a view to all this, we find it important to mention that Supreme Court of Justice through its recommendations (No. 69 from 30/12/2014) on application of ILO Conventions, including Convention No. 18, specified the fact, that Law No. 131/2012 on state control over entrepreneurial activity, particularly through articles 18 and 21, paragraph (1), letter d), which stipulates preliminary procedures of notifying the person to be controlled, does not comply with the provisions of ILO Convention No. 81, and therefore, the respective provisions are not applicable in respect of State Labor Inspectorate.  

Although the recommendations of Supreme Court of Justice are specially addressed to judicial instances, we consider it opportune that these should be also taken into account by the other authorities, empowered to apply the concerned legislation.

In addition to this, in our opinion, these recommendations of Supreme Court of Justice should encourage the Government of the Republic of Moldova to initiate as soon as possible the procedure on making amendements to Law No. 131/2012 with the purpose to take State Labor Inspectorate out of purview of this law. Thus, national legislation in this respect could be brought to a full concordance with the provisions of ILO international legal act, which the Republic of Moldova joined through ratifying it, and which specifies the abilities and particularities of labor inspection carrying out. At the same time, this fact would exclude the necessity of appealing to ILO for monitoring the way the conventions, ratified by our country, are respected and applied by the Government of the Republic of Moldova.

Otherwise, trade unions aimed to provide an efficient supervision and control over the proper respecting legislative acts covering labor right standards, collective labor contracts and collective conventions, are going to keep on requiring necessary measures from Government of the Republic of Moldova in order to launch the procedure on making amendments to Law no/ 131/2012 with the purpose to take the State Labor Inspectorate out of its purview.

Mr. Ion Preguza

Chief of Juridical Department of NCTUM