The trade unionists engaged in education will start negotiations with the authorities in order to increase the salaries of the employees working in this sector

The trade union leaders engaged in education from all the regions of the country met to discuss the problem of remuneration of the employees working in this sector. At the meeting of the republican trade union active of the Education and Science Trade Union Federation, which took place on Wednesday, September 9, in Chisinau, has also confirmed its participation the leadership of the Ministry of Education, but its representatives were absent from the meeting.

The trade unionists have made several claims to be submitted to the central authorities. One of the claims is the unconditional fulfillment of the dispositions of Law number 355 as of 23.12.2005 on the salary system in the budgetary sector, which provides the annual increase from September 1, since the year 2014, of the salaries of teachers and professors where their average salary in the IV^th quarter of the previous reporting year is less than the average salary forecasted for the economy.

According to Dumitru Ivanov, the president of the Education and Science Trade Union Federation, the average salary of teachers, real reached in the IV^th quarter of 2014 is 4250 MDL, the estimated average salary for the year 2015 is of 4500 MDL. Thus, from September 1, 2015 salaries would be increased by 5-6%, but the Ministry of Finance opposes to the achievement of those provisions.

„The employees from the education sector must be remunerated proportionally to their work done. We want quality, but how it can be achieved, given that teachers can hardly survive? We all shout that we want in Europe, but in no European country we will meet such a disaster in education as in our country”, declared Ivanov.

The trade unionists from the education field also call that in the draft of the State Budget for 2016 to be provided the financial resources for raising teachers’ salaries by 70 percent and the amount of wage category under the Unique Tariff Network, which currently is 1000 MDL, to be equal, starting from January 1, 2016 with the size of the minimum of subsistence – 1667 MDL.

„This proposal is due to the socio-economic situation in the country, which is further complicated following the increase from August 1 of the prices for the main components of expenditure – electricity, natural gas and bread, diminishing the income of the employees. In this situation, those salary increases of 25 percent, which we obtained earlier, lost their effect,” said the president of the Education and Science Trade Union Federation.

The trade union leaders also demand the increase by 100% of the amount of the scholarship, and speeding up the adoption of the Government Decision on approval of the Regulation on the Fund to support young teachers.

The trade unionists say that they will start the negotiations with the authorities in the shortest time, and if their demands will not be met, they will be forced to resort to protests.

The Education and Science Trade Union Federation comprises over 125000 trade union members across the country.