Deceived Armenian workers block center of capital
By Rashid Shirinov
Terrible problems of the Armenian economy have a detrimental effect on the Armenian population, especially on the poor segment of the society. This is evident from the case of Nairit plant – its former workers cannot get their salaries for several months.
Thus, former employees of the Yerevan rubber plant Nairit on December 12 blocked Bagratunyats Avenue in the capital and demanded their salaries for five months, Epress.am stated.
The protesters are sure that it is possible to draw the attention of the management of the plant only by such extreme measures.
Security officer of the plant Vrezh Sargsyan said that the management promised them to pay off the entire debt until December 15. But now, the owners say they will only pay salaries for June, referring to the bankruptcy of Nairit.
“The management has no answer to the question about paying for the remaining four months. Our protests will continue until the payment of the entire amount is made,” the former worker said.
The demonstrators believe that the responsibility for this problem lies solely on President Serzh Sargsyan, and only he is able to solve it.
The plant’s director, who had talks with the protestors, failed to give a clear answer to them during the hour-long meeting. “He only said to contact the manager on the bankruptcy case to get the answer about salaries,” another protester said.
The plant, which had produced chloroprene rubber, was closed back in April 2010 because of not being able to pay wages to its employees. Since then, the Armenian government cannot find any investor.
Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan has earlier upset the plant’s former workers. He said in October that the issue of restarting the plant was not included in the Government’s new program “because there is no specific and effective suggestions from potential investors.”
The unemployment rate in Armenia is still the highest among the CIS countries, making up 19.3 percent, and due to the wrong structure of national economy, new vacancies do not seem to come up in near future.
In addition to terrible unemployment, the wages in the country keep falling down. Decline in public sector made up 3.5 percent as compared to the data of last year. In general, significant decrease in salaries has been observed throughout Armenia. Salaries are declining in both public and private sectors, and the Armenian government seems not being able to stop it.
---
Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz