Corina Ajder
These data were presented by Corina Ajder, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Social Policy and Labor, on May 6 during the National Forum on Labor Market Issues and Social Dialogue. The event was organized by the independent center Expert grup.
In figures, the level of informal employment in Moldova amounts to 192 thousand citizens. The experts stated that recently the state is less concerned about giving them the opportunity to legalize themselves on the labor market. And the reduction of investments in the economy aggravates this situation.
The initiatives that were moving in this direction in 2021-2022 are on hold today. We are talking about the bills, under which the authorities planned to provide employers with tax incentives for opening new jobs, as well as for wage increases. As experts explain, at least a temporary rejection of them is explained by the tax losses that the state budget may incur as a result of their implementation.
Although the mechanism of subventions for employers when creating new jobs has already been tested in Moldova. It was applied during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subventions were envisaged as support for employers along with other measures of state support – reimbursements for payroll taxes, interest on bank loans, etc.
However, even at the time when these benefits were initiated, the leadership of the Ministry of Finance was reticent to accept them because of the expected budget losses. Perhaps, this partly explains the absence of representatives of the department and the State Tax Service at the forum. But this only confirms the statements of experts, which sounded on the sidelines of the forum, that state agencies, unfortunately, do not speak with one voice against the phenomenon of informal employment. Although such a conversation inevitably raises the question of how much the state budget loses from it, such figures were not presented.
It is fair to say that certain progress in the fight against undeclared labor in Moldova has been made in recent years. The state has emphasized the reform of the State Labor Inspectorate, and this, according to Corina Ajder, has had an impact on the situation.
In 2022, the number of cases of undeclared labor identified by the officers of the State Labor Inspectorate was only 80 per year. After the introduction of a number of legislative measures that were taken to strengthen the authority of the agency, this figure rose to more than 3 thousand such cases last year. More than 2 thousand citizens legalized their labor relations as a result of these measures. And this year 1700 cases of undeclared labor have already been identified. A signal was given to the society that the state policy in this respect has changed.
But this is not enough, despite the fact that the number of unregistered workers in the labor market has slightly decreased and some of them have come out of the shadows. Which is confirmed by the figures. “Last year, the labor remuneration fund increased by 5 billion lei not only due to the increase in the minimum wage, but also due to the reduction of the shadow sector,” says the Prime Minister’s advisor. – In any case, we managed to index pensions more than it was planned due to the fact that the revenues of the National Social Insurance Fund increased. Now it is necessary to consolidate this trend.
It is known that the level of undeclared labor in the agricultural sector today is extremely high. It has remained at approximately the same level for the last 10 years, so stimulating measures are needed. Now a new tool for day laborers is being introduced in agriculture – a voucher. This is a form with a special regime, which confirms the right of employers to hire workers and pay them for the number of days specified in it. Thanks to it, day laborers will be able to officially register on the labor market without special efforts.
