Nairit plant workers say they do not believe Armenian government, start an indefinite sit-in
Workers of Yerevan-based Nairit chemical plant are staging a protest outside the Armenian government, despite the statement of Energy and Natural Resources Minister Yervand Zakharyan that all back wages will paid to Nairit staff within 1-2 days.
The protesters said that promises were voiced earlier to repay debts owed to plant workers by July 15, then the deadline was postponed until late July, but the promise was not kept, even though tomorrow is July 31. “We don’t believe them. On what grounds should we believe?” one protester said.
Anush Harutyunyan - a member of the group coordinating protests of Naiit workers, a former spokeswoman for the plant – said they no longer trust the government as it repeatedly failed to pay back wages at a stated time.
In her words, because of a feeling of mistrust, they took a decision “to wait for debt repayment outside the government”. “The debts should have been paid off by now,” she said noting that the plant workers have signed all documents they were asked to sign, but only 700 out of the 1700 workers have so far received their back wages.
“We start an indefinite sit-in protest. We will stay here until all of us get our back wages,’ she said.
The energy minister said a short time ago that document preparation was being done in parallel, but there were no obstacles to debt repayment, including financial obstacles.
Since late 2014 the workers of Nairit Plant have staged protests which are supported by some Armenian political forces. They demand repayment of their back wages for the last 4 years – a sum of 5.7 billion drams. On February 6, 2015 the plant announced 1700 lay-offs.