The activity of multidisciplinary teams: less informal work, more budget revenues

Following the multiple joint actions undertaken by the multidisciplinary teams created by police, tax, trade unions and the State Labour Inspectorate representatives to combat the informal economy, through a joint order of the State Tax Service, the State Labour Inspectorate, the General Inspectorate the Police and the CNSM in May 2015, during the past year, led directly or indirectly to a significant increase in budget revenues.

The total revenues from the national public budget from the income tax on wages increased by almost 14 percent compared to the previous year and amounted to more than 3.5 billion lei and the incomes in the compulsory health insurance budget calculated from the same source increased by more than 12 percent, rising to more than 3.5 billion lei. The largest increase of revenues, over 18 percent, was recorded in the state social insurance budget, the revenues reaching almost 11.43 billion lei. It is important to note that the growth rate of receipts is higher than the growth rate of the minimum guaranteed salary. These palpable results were possible due to changes in legislation, the implementation of measures to prevent the phenomenon of the informal economy.

In this context, it is worth to mention the key contribution of the National Trade Union Confederation of Moldova, which has actively involved in the prevention and fight against the informal economy. For example, thanks to the CNSM initiative within the National Commission for Consultations and Collective Bargaining, solutions have been discussed and elaborated to combat the phenomenon of informal work and wage payment “in the envelope”.

The CNSM has proposed to revise the minimum guaranteed salary in the real sector, which allows the salary to be differentiated in relation to the employee’s qualification, professional qualification and competence, the degree of responsibility of the duties, the work performed and their complexity. Consequently, in April 2017, the Government of the Republic of Moldova increased the guaranteed minimum wage in the real sector to 2,380 MDL, calculated for a full-time work program of 169 hours on average, which leads to the minimization of salary payments in the envelope.

Also, trade unions have initiated and endorsed the approval of the Law on Meals Vouchers, which will contribute to diminishing the share of wages in the envelope, have requested and succeeded in achieving the reduction of the fiscal burden on individuals’ incomes in the process of approving the budgetary policy -fiscal and customs for 2018.

Finally, it should be specified that the CNSM representatives have worked in the multidisciplinary teams with the other partners in monitoring the observance of the labour relations legislation in order to protect the employees’ rights and counteract the informal work only in the context of the actions carried out in the economic units, in which trade unions operate

Department of mass media and international relations of CNSM