Moldova Railway Employees Still Waiting for Salary Payments: Total Debt Is 90 Million Lei

For almost three months, “Moldova Railway” employees have not received their salaries. The last money they received was for October. In total, the company’s wage arrears amount to 90 million lei. The administration says it did everything possible to pay off debts to employees, but the financial situation of the company remains difficult due to low cargo traffic. Representatives of the company admit that they have been struggling with financial problems for a long time, but say the problems were caused by a reduction in the flow of goods due to the war on Moldova’s border. “The reason is simple. As a self-governing state enterprise, we depend on freight traffic and commercial operations carried out during the reporting period. There is a sharp decline, by almost 30 per cent, in the volume of freight transported,” said Dmitri Prohnițchi, head of the Moldova Railway commercial service. According to the railway company management, almost six thousand employees received their salaries partially. Although January is ending, workers only received payments for October, so they are almost three months in arrears. The administration is looking for ways to solve this problem. The company’s management says it took measures to cut costs, including through energy efficiency in buildings, but this is not enough; the budget depends largely on the volume of goods transported. “Other actions taken are attempts to attract even higher volume of transported cargo. We also made an offer for the market, where a discount is given to all shippers corresponding to the volume transported. Of course, negotiations are underway with various neighboring states to simplify some procedures,” said Dmitri Prohnițchi. The Public Property Agency said that it was a complex issue and they controlled the situation, but could not interfere in the economic processes of the enterprise. Currently, the average monthly salary of a Moldovan Railway employee is eight thousand lei.