Moldova (bbabo.net), - Economic expert Dumitru Barbalat criticized the new addition to the Labor Code, which was approved in the first reading. child care workers from 0 to 3 years of age in accordance with the regulatory framework approved by the government.
In his post on the social network, the expert draws attention to the wording "may", emphasizing that the employer does not have such an obligation.
"The authors of the project and commentators have already determined that the corresponding service involves the opening of kindergartens at enterprises. Let's look into this issue ourselves.
It should be noted that the government of the parliamentary PAS legislative initiative by Decree No. 88/2022 considers it inappropriate to supplement the Labor Code with such vague and non-specific obligations for employers to create child care services at enterprises aged 0 to 3 years.
Barbalat stressed that "the bill was adopted by the parliament only in the first reading and, perhaps, the meaning of the government's negative conclusion will reach the deputies by the second reading."
"The corresponding parliamentary initiative is not accompanied by any arguments. Let's assume that the law is adopted and employers, if they wish, need and are able, in accordance with the future government regulations, will be ready to open kindergartens for younger groups of children.
According to statistics, for 6 childbearing women - one mother with a small child. On average, women make up 52 percent of the total number of employees.
About 800 large enterprises haverage of 140 women. Of these, about 70 are of childbearing age. Taking into account that for 6 childbearing women there is one mother with a small child, at large enterprises the number of children aged from 0 to 3 years is 10-12. At 1360 medium-sized enterprises - at best, only one such child. At the rest of the enterprises - small and micro, with a total average number of employees of 18 and 2.3, there can be no talk of children's rooms / kindergartens in principle, "Barbalat writes.
He also stressed that mothers with small children are forced to work because the country has low wages and meager benefits for caring for small children.
"Firstly, we note that in the Constitution in Article 47 since 1994 it has been proclaimed that the state is obliged to take measures to provide any person with a decent standard of living to maintain the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing , medical care and necessary social services.
That is, not only workers, but all citizens have constitutional rights to a decent standard of living.
In accordance with Article 5 of Law No. 847/2002 on wages, it is determined that the source of funds for the remuneration of workers in the real sector is part of the income. And this “part of the income” is not defined anywhere, in any normative act.
And for public sector employees, the source of funds for paying wages is the funds approved for them in the budget, at the expense of which they are supported. That is, at the expense of enterprises and workers in the real sector of the economy, writes Barbalat.
He draws attention to the fact that even those who work are far from some legislatively indefinite “decent standard of living”.
"Of the total output by enterprises, the following are allocated for wages: at large enterprises - 8.6 percent, at medium enterprises - 14.1 percent, at small enterprises - 10.3 percent and at micro enterprises - 8.3 percent. This clearly cannot provide a decent standard of living.
In this context, why the current parliament, instead of finally legislatively ensuring the requirement of the Constitution in terms of a decent standard of living for the population, has taken up kindergartens for younger groups at enterprises. When, apparently, many of them, themselves still with the mentality of the preschool level.
And the show that the PAS deputies staged, bringing their young children to the parliament's meeting room, is a clear proof of this," Barbalat added.
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