Moldovan trade unions demand 35-per cent increase in salaries

Chisinau, 4 February /MOLDPRES/ - The National Trade Unions Confederation (CSRM) today asked the government to increase the salaries by 35 per cent, given the rise in prices.    

CSRM head Petru Chiriac has told MOLDPRES that the trade unions also demanded establishing a new minimum salary, which was to be at the level of the subsistence minimum, “in order not to allow further impoverishment of the residents.”

“The National Trade Unions Confederation is deeply alarmed by the 6.7 per cent decrease of the wages’ purchasing power. Although, according to official statistics, in November 2015, the monthly average salary recorded a 5.9-per cent increase against November 2014, this rise was outstripped by the consumer prices index. Thus, the real wage index stood at 93.3 per cent,” Chiriac said.   

“According to an updated forecast of the macroeconomic indexes for 2015-2018, a monthly average salary of 5,050 lei (230 euros) is scheduled for 2016, up by 109.8 per cent against 2015. Nevertheless, this evolution will not cover even the increase of the inflation. In 2016, the inflation is to reach 111.4 per cent, and this will trigger a new cut in the real wage by 1.5 per cent,” Petru Chiriac said.   

Chiriac did not rule out that the trade unions might protest, if the cabinet did not take into account their claims.  

Presently, the minimum salary in the budgetary sphere is 1,000 lei, while the minimum salary in the real sector of the economy is 1,900 lei. The subsistence minimum is estimated at about 1,900 lei.

(Reporter D. Moraru, editor A. Raileanu)