The Government should present measures to mitigate the impacts of inflation and reduce the risk of poverty as soon as possible and in a clear manner, President Zuzana Caputova said following a meeting with representatives of trade unions on Thursday. "Many people are afraid of redundancies, and low-salary workers are already falling below the poverty line," the president said on Facebook.
The meeting on Thursday was attended by KOZ Labour Union Confederation head Monika Uhlerova, Jaroslav Kopanica of the KOVO Trade Union, the head of medical trade unions Anton Szalay, the chief of the Energy and Chemical Trade Union Andrej Buch and others.
As KOZ Labour Unions Confederation head Monika Uhlerova informed, the meeting revolved around the poverty of the labour force and its specific social situation in the face of inflation and the energy crisis. “We discussed concrete measures currently in the pipeline with respect to the crisis, the 2023 state budget draft as well as the 2022 budget hike and the re-distribution of resources," said Uhlerova.
Representatives of trade unions informed the President that a tripartite meeting is slated for Monday next week, October 24, to address the first set of measures aimed at providing aid to businesses and employers. “In the following days, the Government is also expected to unveil measures to aid households and low-income earners," added Uhlerova. In her view, poverty is a political problem that should be treated as a salient issue in the public spotlight. "A poor society is a sick society. A society that lacks solidarity, empathy and that radicalises itself. The impacts of poverty on society are extremely expensive and generate additional negative social phenomena," she underlined.
Source: TASR
