Konfindustria protests the raise of the minimal wage

TIRANA, April.10 – After joining forces with the business community in the contestation of the law on fines, Konfindustria has protested the unstudied raise of the minimal wage with a governmental decision of January 2007. After a thorough consideration of the effects of this decision, Konfindustria has made public the damages that such a measure can cause if implemented. The general administrator Gjergj Buxhuki said that such a measure can increase significantly the production costs for businesses and thus risk bankruptcy for some of them. Also in the conditions of imported goods that enter without custom fee the competitiveness becomes unfair and more aggressive for the Albanian producers. The government is approving measures that contradict each other, Buxhuki explained. Foreign investors take into consideration cheap labor when they make a decision to invest in Albania. This would hurt the chances for getting more FDI and runs against the spirit of the 1 euro initiative.
Also Konfidustria claims that the decision is not studied carefully because it addresses discriminatively the qualified and the unqualified labor, when it is a fact that Albania has a lot of labor force which is unqualified. Konfindustria complains that the government did not consult the business community about this important law that was bound to have a profound effect on hem. The business association proposes instead a thorough study of the labor market and a potential increase at the level of 25 percent. It also recommends the consideration of diversity in the professions scheme.