1 March 2019 – At the end of 2018, the Parliament adopted amendments to art. 111 of the Labor Code. The ambiguous wording of the changes being interpreted differently by all the stakeholders on the labour market, led to the fact that employers in Moldova had to double the pay for  public holidays in 2019. That change put double pressure on the budgets of both the companies in the real sector of economy, as well as on the public sector. Thus, in 2019 alone, employers urgently needed to find more than one billion lei in order to comply with the new legal provisions, and this only in the public sector, the amount being tripled for the employers in the private sector.

This issue came to the attention of the Economic Council as a result of the complaint sent to the Prime Minister by the representatives of the National Confederation of Employers of the Republic of Moldova. Only within the Council platform could employers have a constructive discussion on this issue with the two responsible ministries – the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Social Protection. After a series of discussions, it was decided to complete art. 111 with a line that brings clarity to the subject. In March 2019, the Executive approves, by committing the liability of the Government towards the Parliament, the draft law on amending the Labour Code.

During this period, the experts of the Secretariat of the Economic Council assured the communication between the two ministries, thus, speeding up the drafting of amendments. In the course of four months during which the provisions were in force, employers paid double wages for non-working public holidays, incurring unjustified expenses.

The Secretariat of the Economic Council to the Prime Minister is  supported  by  the  European  Bank  for  Reconstruction  and  Development, funded by the UK Government’s Good Governance Fund, and the World Bank Group project “Investment Climate Reform”, funded by the Sweden.

The Secretariat of the Economic Council to the Prime Minister is supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, funded by the UK Government’s Good Governance Fund.