The DECLARATION of CNSM in connection with the approval by the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova of the proposals to amend and supplement the Labor Code

On July 21 of the current year, the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova adopted the Law which amended 36 articles in the Labor Code.

It is unfortunate that at the elaboration of the Law for the amendment and completion of the Labor Code, the competent authorities ignored the experience of the social partners (Government, Employers, and Trade Unions) to make changes and additions to the Labor Code only as a result of a compromise between the parties.

Even though the Trade unions were involved in the drafting of this law, their proposals and objections were rejected, and therefore, no compromise has been reached on the amendment of the Labor Code. As a result, Confederal Committee of the CNSM (Decision No. 6-2 from 25.05.2017) did not support the proposals to amend the Labor Code.

The ground reasons of the Trade unions invoked to reject the proposed changes and additions to the Labor Code were: cancellation of the prohibition to set probation period for the employment of young specialists and Granting the employer the right not to motivate the decision in the case of the unsatisfactory outcome of the probationary period; establishing a new reason to dismiss employees on the grounds „age pensioner’s status”; reducing by two years the duration of additional unpaid leave for child care aged from 3-6 years;  granting the employer the right to dismiss employees of union members without the consent of the trade union body (in certain cases); cancellation of the employer’s compulsory issuance of the employment order; the undermining of collective labor agreements in the regulation of labor relations; exclusion of legal guarantees in the field of work for employees with children aged 4 to 6 years and others.

Adopted amendment to the Labor Code: undermines the social, economic and labor rights and guarantees of employees; diminishing socio-legal purpose of individual and collective labor contracts; compromise the measures taken by the state related to counteracting black work and paying salaries in the envelope; affects the effectiveness of social partnership activity; creates contradictions of the national legislation with the norms of international law to which the Republic of Moldova is a party.

Although the trade unions have taken many actions to prevent the diminishing of employees’ rights and interests (Submitting augmented proposals to the National Commission for consultations and collective bargaining, declarations, demarches to the competent authorities, Parliamentary committees and later attending their meetings, including the participation in public debates organized by IDIS “Viitorul” and Foundation Friedrich Ebert Stiftung etc.), The Parliament of the Republic of Moldova adopted amendments and additions to the Labor Code, without taking into account the opinion of the unions.

More than that, the Government of the Republic of Moldova, repeatedly, declared that it aims the development of a new Labor Code. This is extremely worrying because the Moldovan Confederation of Trade Unions is not involved in any kind of discussion on the subject

Can such a situation have the effect of further worsening the rights and interests of employees.

The practical implementation of the amendments and completions to the Labor Code, which diminishes the rights and interests of employees, definitely will cause conflicting situations and will require the need to return to the improvement of legal regulations in labor.

Therefore, the National Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova considers as inadmissible the perpetuation of the faulty practice applied in the process of amending the 36 articles of the Labor Code and rejects the idea of developing a new Labor Code, without involving the social partners.

President                                                                                             Oleg BUDZA