National Trade Union Confederation's head gives opinion on situation in trade unions

Chisinau, 10 November /MOLDPRES/- The head of the National Trade Union Confederation of Moldova (CNSM), Oleg Budza, believes that the amendments to the Labor Code, which have reduced the role of trade unions, will not cause an exodus of members of the organization.

“Consultation of trade unions is an important process that is used in Europe. This means that the employer must provide reasons why the citizen X is fired. The head of the trade union committee analyzes, after which we have the branch union, at the confederation we have well trained lawyers and all of them are studying these reasons. If the trade unions, for objective reasons, give a negative opinion on dismissal, and the director dismisses the employee, then it is a basis for addressing the court, where there is every chance for restoration. This is our right and I assure you that often it will not even get into court, because we are able to solve the problem together with the Labor Inspectorate and other structures through convincing negotiations”, the trade union leader in the country said.

Asked to give his opinion, if there are no fears that many members will leave the organization since trade unions have lost their former value and can no longer provide employees with earlier protection, Budza said he did not believe that it would move massively from organization. “When it is bad, people join forces and become more combative. That was the case in other states. That is why, we need to think about how to protect the interests of those who are part of the trade union family, including through picketing, strikes, courts etc”, he said.

Asked whether after the promulgation of law on amending and supplementing the Labor Code, the primary trade union organizations in the territory did not intend to organize mass protests, Budza noted that the trade unions could have gone out in the street, but would not have had the expected effect. “We would have come out 1,000-2,000 people, which would have had no effect. I knew that the parliament will vote, unfortunately, quickly, in two readings, but this still will cause dissatisfaction with society. The man will feel on his own that something has changed in relations with the boss and will be punished, because the boss already has all the legal instruments. In this case, employees need to think very well who protects their interests in the primary organization, or, the head of the trade union committee must be a trusted person and not make alliances with the boss”, the quoted source reads.

The decree promulgating the Law on amending and supplementing the Labor Code, signed by Moldovan President Igor Dodon, was published in the Official Journal on 20 October. Under the document, 36 articles of the Labor Code have been amended and supplemented. One of them states that the dismissal of the employee, trade union member, shall be done by “prior consultation with the trade union of unity”. The old code stipulated that “dismissal of employees may take place only with prior written consent of the trade union of unity”.

More comments on the issue of the Moldovan trade union leader can be traced in the video interview on the website of the MOLDPRES State News Agency (moldpres.md).

(Reporter L. Grubîi, editor A. Răileanu)