Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Amendments and additions proposed to the current Constitution are of great importance in terms of even more reliable protection of labor rights of the country’s citizens at the constitutional level.

Minister for Labor and Social Protection of Population Salim Muslimov made the remark on September 21, referring to the upcoming referendum scheduled for September 26.

The minister added that along with other changes, the draft referendum act also reflects issues related to employment.

“The 36th article of Azerbaijan’s Constitution refers to the right of an employee to strike,” said Muslimov. “The fourth paragraph, which prohibits a lockout [a temporary work stoppage or denial of employment initiated by the management of a company during a labor dispute] with a few exceptions, will be added to this article in case the amendments approved.”

Sometimes employers use a lockout to prevent workers’ attempt on submission their demands and holding strikes.

“The 284th article of Labor Code relates to the lockout. It reflects the cases when the lockout is valid. For example, if workers set requirements before an employer that do not coincide with his economic, industrial, material and other features, and if carried out an illegal strike and etc. In such cases, within 10 days, the employer must give written notice to the Ministry, his employees and the Confederation of Trade Unions, and only then he can announce the lockout. But, unfortunately, in practice, in many cases, especially in recent times, when workers demand salary raise, an employer carries out a lockout without a legitimate reason. So far, the Ministry has never received a written notice. However, we have received the written complaints from employees,” he said.

September 26, 2016, was set as the date for the referendum on proposed changes to the constitution of Azerbaijan.

In a bill recently sent to the Constitutional Court, President Ilham Aliyev proposed amendments to 29 Articles of Azerbaijan’s current constitution. The changes envisage the extension of the presidential term from five to seven years, the establishment of the first vice-president and vice-president positions in the country as well as the abolishment of minimum age limit for presidential candidates, dissolution of parliament by the president.

As of September 7, the CEC has registered 846 observers for the upcoming referendum, and 37,429 observers on the polling stations.

The Electoral Code of Azerbaijan indicates that the day of the popular vote should be non-working.

Final results of the Referendum will be announced until October 21.

The last time changes to the Constitution were made seven years ago, following Constitutional referendum held in 2009.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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