Moldova
The ITUC affiliate in Moldova is the Confederatia Nationala a Sindicatelor din Moldova (CNSM).
Moldova ratified Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association
freedom of association
The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.
See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework
and Protection of the Right to Organise (1948) in 1996 and Convention No. 98 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining
collective bargaining
The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.
See collective bargaining agreement
(1949) in 1996.
Legal
Freedom of association / Right to organise
Freedom of association
The right to freedom of association is enshrined in the Constitution.
The right to freedom of association is regulated by law.
Anti-Union discrimination
The law prohibits anti-union discrimination, but does not provide adequate means of protection against it.
Right to collective bargaining
Right to collective bargaining
The right to collective bargaining is recognised by law.
Restrictions on the principle of free and voluntary bargaining
- Compulsory conciliation
conciliation
An attempt by a neutral third party, a conciliator, to aid the settling of an industrial dispute by improving communications, offering advice and interpreting issues to bring the disputing parties to a point where they can reconcile their differences. The conciliator does not take as active a role as a mediator or an arbitrator.
See arbitration, mediation and / or binding arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.
See conciliation, mediation procedure in the event of disputes during collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.
See collective bargaining agreement
, other than in essential services essential services Services the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population. Can include the hospital sector, electricity and water supply services, and air traffic control. Strikes can be restricted or even prohibited in essential services.
See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework
- The ILO requested the Government to amend section 360(1) of the Labour Code according to which, if the parties to the collective labour dispute have not reached an agreement or disagree with the decision of the reconciliation commission, either party has the right to submit an application to settle the conflict in the judicial tribunals. The ILO requested the Government to take the necessary measures to amend the legislation so as to ensure that referral of the dispute to the judicial tribunals is possible only upon request by both parties to the dispute, or in cases involving essential services in the strict sense of the term or public servants engaged in the State administration.
Right to strike
Right to strike
The right to strike is recognised in the Labour Law.
Barriers to lawful strike actions
- Compulsory recourse to arbitration
arbitration
A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.
See conciliation, mediation , or to long and complex conciliation conciliation An attempt by a neutral third party, a conciliator, to aid the settling of an industrial dispute by improving communications, offering advice and interpreting issues to bring the disputing parties to a point where they can reconcile their differences. The conciliator does not take as active a role as a mediator or an arbitrator.
See arbitration, mediation and mediation mediation A process halfway between conciliation and arbitration, in mediation a neutral third party assists the disputing parties in reaching a settlement to an industrial dispute by suggesting possible, non-binding solutions.
See arbitration, conciliation procedures prior to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.
See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike actions - According to article 362(3) of the Labour Code, a strike may be declared if in advance all means of resolving the collective dispute of work within the conciliation procedure provided by this Code have been exhausted. In addition, the ILO Committee of Experts requested the Government to amend section 360(1) of the Labour Code according to which, if the parties to the collective labour dispute have not reached an agreement or disagree with the decision of the reconciliation commission, either party has the right to submit an application to settle the conflict in the judicial tribunals. The ILO requested the Government to take the necessary measures to amend the legislation so as to ensure that referral of the dispute to the judicial tribunals is possible only upon request by both parties to the dispute, or in cases involving essential services in the strict sense of the term or public servants engaged in the State administration.
Ban or limitations on certain types of strike actions
- Restrictions with respect to the objective of a strike
strike
The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.
See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike (e.g. industrial disputes, economic and social issues, political, sympathy and solidarity reasons) - The Labour Code prohibits political strikes. Solidarity strikes are allowed.
Limitations or ban on strikes in certain sectors
- Discretionary determination or excessively long list of “essential services
essential services
Services the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population. Can include the hospital sector, electricity and water supply services, and air traffic control. Strikes can be restricted or even prohibited in essential services.
See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework
” in which the right to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.
See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike is prohibited or severely restricted - The list of services where strikes are prohibited pursuant to Decision No. 656 include services such as air freight and communication system enterprises, which are considered neither essential services in the strict sense of the term nor do they involve public servants exercising authority in the name of the State, where the right to strike can be prohibited.
- Other limitations (e.g. in EPZ export processing zone A special industrial area in a country where imported materials are processed before being re-exported. Designed to attract mostly foreign investors by offering incentives such as exemptions from certain trade barriers, taxes, business regulations, and/or labour laws. s)
- Employees of airlines, hospital personnel, public employees and workers on probation do not have the right to strike.
In practice
A parliamentary commission was established under resolution no. 11 of 13 February 2020 to enquire into the alienation of trade union properties as part of matters arising from Moldova’s independence in 1993. Curiously, however, this attempt comes over two decades after Moldova’s post-independence constitution guaranteed the private property rights of legal persons in Moldova, including trade unions, without any exception.
Though the National Trade Union Confederation of Moldova (CNSM) submitted a request to the president of the Parliament of Moldova to be engaged in the matter, the president refused. This refusal is clearly against the right of trade unions to be consulted on all matters that directly affect the exercise of their rights, including their property rights.
CNSM has rightly raised the issue of fundamental legal flaws with the work of the commission and its report as submitted and has demanded that the report of the commission be set aside without further delay.
According to the National Trade Union Confederation of Moldova, the total amount of debts in the form of trade union dues not transferred to AGROINDSIND (the National Trade Union Federation of Agriculture and Food) amounted to 7,396,118 lei in 2019. The Federation has instituted legal proceedings.
According to the National Trade Union Confederation of Moldova (CNSM), in 2018, in the social services sector and the manufacture-of-goods sector, employers, including Î.M. Gospodăria Locativ Comunală and Joint-Venture “Housing and Utilities Services”, unilaterally changed some provisions of the collective labour contracts.
According to the National Trade Union Confederation of Moldova, during the year it recorded a number of cases of withholding of union dues, in several sectors, such as the construction sector, the light industry, the railway industry and the public sector (social services).
According to the National Trade Union Confederation of Moldova, Bălţeanca, a women’s apparel retailer, abusively disbanded the company’s trade union at the request of its major shareholder, a German company. The first-level union counted around 325 members in the company.
On 29 March 2017 the State Enterprise Fabrica de sticlă din Chișinău concluded a collective agreement with a bogus union set up to bypass collective bargaining
collective bargaining
The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.
See collective bargaining agreement
.
A representative union already existed in the State Entreprise. Established decades ago, it counted 186 members while at the time of its creation in 2016, the bogus union counted only 25 members.
On 20 March 2017 the administration of the State Entreprise initiated negotiations with each trade union organisation and nine days later, it concluded a new collective agreement with the newly formed union for the period 2017-2020. As a result the administration ceased all negotiations with the representative union.
In February 2013, the court ruled that the action of blocking factory gates to ensure that sugar was not removed was not directed against Goldeni sugar factory but at protecting workers’ rights. Union Chair Vasilii Guleac, Vice Chair Valentina Semeniuc and Anatolie Furtuna, Fiodor Svoevolin and Victor Colibaba had been charged with offences that could have led to prison sentences of between 3 and 8 years.
The creation of new unions remains a problem due to the employers’ resistance. Collective agreements are mainly signed at enterprises having a long history of collective bargaining
collective bargaining
The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.
See collective bargaining agreement
. Legislative enforcement remains weak. Neither labour inspectorates nor prosecutors’ offices have been effective in monitoring and enforcing labour standards, especially the right to organise.
In 2004, repeated and systematic interference by the public authorities led a number of Moldovan trade unions, supported by the ICFTU (predecessor of the ITUC), the IUF and PSI to lodge a formal complaint to the ILO
International Labour Organization
A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.
See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights
Committee on Freedom of Association
freedom of association
The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.
See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework
(CFA). In June, after having examined the case a number of times, the CFA noted with regret that the government had still failed to address the issues mentioned in the complaint. The alleged acts of interference by the government and employers in trade unions’ internal affairs had not been investigated and the legislation had not been amended. In addition, a new case concerning the refusal to register a trade union in 2007-2008 had not been properly addressed.