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Trade Unions and the Social Dialogue in Moldova
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This autumn announces to be “hot” in terms of socio-political events. It is thus natural for one to wonder about the likely behaviour that the Moldovan trade unions are going to adopt given the general trend in union movements to become more active in autumn and spring. One thing that is certain is that whatever the union actions, they will not be related in any way to the events that have been announced by some Moldovan political parties and movements for this autumn.
The actions of the unions will rather be related to the tensioning of the socio-economic situation of the population and the ensuing real danger of further decline in the living standards in Moldova. These will be due to the increase in prices on basic products, bread in the first place, which are the principal indicators for calculating the minimum consumption basket, the increase during this year of fees on electricity and the intention of the monopolist suppliers to further raise them, the galloping increase in the inflation rate that will exceed the rate forecast by the Government and is expected to reach 17% by the end of the year.
The value of the minimum consumption basket, a sure indicator of the living standard, is currently worth more than 600 lei and has increased by 8% compared to last year. The average salary, which stands currently at 818 lei, does not cover the minimum consumption needs, and, as a result, the overwhelming majority of the population lives under the poverty line. According to data from the Department for Statistics and Sociology, about 78% of the population earn less than the minimum consumption basket. Under these circumstances, the unions’ mission is to take rapid measures to stop any further decline in the living standards of wage-earners.
At present, two national — inter-branch trade union associations function at the national level in the Republic of Moldova: the Confederation of trade unions of Moldova (CTUM), which joins around 450, 000 employees from the agricultural and non-production sectors (social sphere, public administration etc.), and the Confederation of Free Trade Unions “Solidaritatea” (Solidarity) (CFTU), joining around 200, 000 employees from the production and services spheres.
The issue of ensuring decent and duly paid wages is of key importance to the trade unions, as wages are the only source of income of the majority of Moldovan citizens.
Hence, it was to be expected that the trade unions representing the state budget employees, especially the ones working in the education system, be unhappy with the results of the negotiations, as the raise of wage tariffs produced as a result of these last year did not lead to an increase in the real value of wages and was “swollen” by the continuing increase in prices on mass consumption produces and services.
Unlike in the past two-three years when the unions claimed doubling the salaries and started strikes at the beginning of the financial year when the state budget for that year had already been adopted, this year the unions have synchronised their actions with the drafting and debating of the state budget for 2004 by various ministries. At the same time, the unions have warned the Government through the mass media that they would start a national strike should the Government fail to double the wages.
However, the negotiations ended with the firm position of the Government to raise wages by as much as 15%. It is up to the unions now if the collective conflict heightens and wins the support of employees.
In a completely different position are the unions from the production sphere (members of the CFTU), whose main partner in the negotiations over wage tariffs in the real sector of the economy is the National Confederation of Employers. Over the past three years, the CFTU has secured a continuous increase of wage tariffs, and the tariff wage for category I wage earners in entities enjoying financial autonomy has reached 340 lei.
The social partners- Government — Unions — Employers — have agreed to launch in the near future talks with a view to draft a new Collective Labour Contract at the national level, which will also include negotiations over the new wage tariffs for 2004. Notably, the unions will demand establishing a minimum guaranteed wage per country depending on the value of the minimum existence basket, so that starting 2007 the minimum wage can not be below the consumption minimum.
Apart from raising salaries to a level to fit the real costs of labour force, the industrial unions also seek to change the structure of wages in the production sphere in such a way that the value of the guaranteed tariff wage, which is currently worth 30–40% of the overall wage, be upgraded to at least 70% thereof, and the remainder of the wage be made up of raises and bonuses. Thus, the wage earners will be entirely dependent on the employers, who can change the variable part of the wage at any time.
If the value of wages in the budgetary sphere depends on the means allotted for this purpose in the state budget, the value of wages in the real sector of the economy is determined primarily by factors such as the stimulation and protection by the state of autonomous producers, relieving the fiscal pressure on them, creating new and stable jobs, professional upgrading of wage earners, ensuring secure work places etc.
Differently put, the state has to get involved more actively in the process of creating favourable conditions for business activities and loyal competition, and the values of wages may be determined through collective talks between wage earners and employers, which talks need to be encouraged by the state.
The unions believe that the collective talks are one of the most efficient and important means of improving the situation of wage earners in terms of fair retribution of labour, job stability and secure work conditions. For these reasons, the unions, taking into account the new socio-economic conditions, have channelled their activity towards negotiating the collective labour contract at all levels: enterprise, branch and national levels.
The topicality of the social partnership in Moldova is obvious and is expressed through the refusal by the social partners to revert to confrontation and their commitment to constructive co-operation, based on principles of equality and mutual trust. This stimulates stability and guards the social peace in the society.
The unions, together with the employers, are currently engaged in various tripartite structure of social dialogue — the administration boards of the National Agency for Social Insurance, the National Company for Health Insurance, the National Agency for Labor Placement etc. — and their task is to represent the interests of the wage earners and employers in these structures.
In circumstances where the shadow economy if proliferating, many wage earners work illegally. In addition, given that the gap between offer and demand on the labour market has deepened, the adoption of the new Labour Code is of major importance. The Code provides all necessary premises for changing the centralised regulation of labour relations to a contractual one.
In this sense, the unions are to play an important role within the social partnership and will thus make full use of their rights to protect the wage earners in the labour market.
The unions believe that their place is where the legal framework for the new labour relations is being drafted and adopted, so that they can effectively defend the rights and interests of the employees and at the same time advocate for an optimal balance of interests of the sides to the social dialogue. In this sense, the Labour Inspection has been recently created in order to control the observation of relevant laws together with the unions.
The social dialogue can win the trust of labour people only when there is guaranteed social peace based on the fair distribution of income, secure working conditions, well functioning national economy, accountability of public institutions etc.
The social European model that we are trying to follow (due to the clear-cut European option of the political leadership of Moldova) involves building modern and functional relationships at the national level and in every field of economic activity. Starting from the assumption that the role of unions in the European integration process must be an active one, the unions will soon draft a strategy which will include a series of conditions/criteria specific to the union movement in Europe.
In unions’ view, the current state of the social partnership in Moldova is inefficient for the following reasons: the assumed obligations are not fulfilled, the activity is poorly organised, the responsibility lacks, the unions lack the capability of putting forward well-founded demands, carry out talks and carry out the agreed deals.
One of the forms of pressure of the employers over the Government is exercising the right to collective actions. They can attain their objectives only under certain circumstances: the demands are realistic and well founded, the current laws are strictly observed, there is solidarity among all employees and employers and they act in a transparent way so that the society is aware of the causes of conflicts and the reached outcomes.
Obviously, the period of ten years of transition has not been enough for the unions to become a strong actor within the social partnership. However, this period of time has been enough for them to understand that the socio-economic problems can only be solved at the negotiation table and not by masses of people gathered in the street.