In Armenia, former employees of "Nairit" demand to resume operation of their plant

Former employees of the "Nairit" plant demand to resume the operation of the enterprise and intend to continue their protest until the government of Armenia will perform its obligations on repayment of wage arrears.

On December 5, 2014, the factory bosses decided to reduce the staff down to 500 from the then 770; besides, other 1667 employees had been on compulsory leave during four years. On February 6, 2015, within the staff reduction programme, 1700 employees of the "Nairit" lost their jobs without any repayment of salary debts for 20 months.

On May 14, former employees of the "Nairit" plant announced the start of their two-day sitting hunger strike demanding to pay wage arrears.

The former employees of the "Nairit" plant were forced to take extreme measures in order to attract public attention to their problems. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Armen Pilosyan, a former employee of the "Nairit" plant.

"We need solid guarantees that the problem of wage arrears will be solved, and the hunger strike provides a good chance to bring our demands to the country's government," Armen Pilosyan believes.

The former employees of the plant plan to involve Armenian citizens in their protest action. "More than 1700 people lost their jobs, and, furthermore, they got no final remuneration. And this can happen to anyone," said Arpi Tagoyan, a former employee of the "Nairit" plant, who was dismissed in February.

The woman has also added that the protesters plan to hand out leaflets with an appeal to join the protest action of the former employees of the "Nairit" plant.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.