Marchel Spatar
He said about six out of ten people employed in agriculture work without official registration, without labor contracts and without social protection, being paid for temporary work such as harvesting or tending crops.
“By comparison, the rate in non-agricultural sectors is six times lower – one in ten. What is informal employment? These are people who accept day jobs because they need money for bread, medicine, bills or debts at the store. More often than not, they don’t even ask what social contributions are paid for them, because their needs today are much more acute than worrying about tomorrow,” Spatar said during the discussion of the draft law on day laborers.
The goal is 100 thousand labor contracts
He stressed that these workers are in a constant situation of instability – without vacations, social guarantees and confidence in the future.
“Our ultimate goal should be to transfer more than 100 thousand informally employed workers to the category of employees with a labor contract. The project presented by the government should be implemented in this logic. The digital registration of day laborers will simplify the registration of workers and will be the basis for a more sustainable solution in the long term,” said the MP.
Social elevator stage
According to him, the day laborer status is not an optimal solution and in most cases is insufficient: “I remind you that day laborers are entitled in fact only to a pension. The contributions they pay do not cover other rights such as protection in case of illness, childcare or risks of accidents and disability.”
Nevertheless, he considers that day laborer status is an intermediate step to a full-fledged employment contract that provides adequate social protection.
At a plenary session on 30 April, Parliament passed the first reading of a draft law providing for the digitalization of the day laborer registry and the introduction of an electronic system for issuing digital vouchers. The legislative initiative belongs to the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection and is aimed at reducing informal employment in agriculture, simplifying administrative procedures and reducing the bureaucratic burden for work customers.
