Accession to the European Union will require additional efforts from the business environment to keep employees in the country. Eduard Gurin, chairman of the European Business Association, and Sergiu Iurcu, senior advisor of the National Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova, were guests on the program “National Consens” on Rlive TV. According to them, to avoid labor exodus, the authorities need to adopt and put into practice several European directives for social protection and employment.
The trade union representative said that today, the Republic of Moldova is facing a shortage of employees, especially for unskilled labor. With the free movement of workers, the labor shortage will worsen if the country is not ready for EU accession.
“We will have a flow of labor only when we have decent wages and decent working conditions. All of this depends on the investment climate, job creation, stability in the country, and investor interest. If we achieve all this, Europeans will become interested in the Moldovan labor market,” said Sergiu Iurcu, senior advisor of the National Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova.
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On the other hand, Eduard Gurin said that while the principles of the free movement of workers within the European Union are advantageous for employees and employers, they can be real challenges.
“The biggest impediment in this transition is that employers will only suffer because the Moldovan labor market is unattractive for EU citizens. It means we’ll lose the labor force we already lack. We will have to attract employees from other non-European countries,” explained Eduard Gurin, chairman of the European Business Association.
The Republic of Moldova is to negotiate 35 chapters for EU membership. One of them concerns the free movement of workers, which stipulates that citizens of one EU member state have the right to work in another. Employers must treat migrant workers equally as national workers in employment conditions and social and tax benefits.