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The Armenian government has paid the back wages of 2,400 workers of Nairit chemical plant in Yerevan, Anush Harutyunyan, member of the group coordinating protests of Nairit employees, said at a press conference today.

“It is the result of our unity and persistence and also a manifestation of good will by the authorities,” she said.

Anush Harutyunyan expressed confidence that the plant has potential for a re-launch. “The enterprise has potential, and the staff is its greatest potential,” she said adding that most of the Nairit’s equipment is still in working condition and can be used to generate production.

“Investment is needed. We will not stop our struggle. We will continue it with demands for the plant to be re-launched,” she said.
As was reported, on June 9 Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan received a group of Nairit Plant’s workers. He said that during the consultation held by the Armenian president, it was decided to find financial resources to pay Nairit staff’s back wages for recent years. The PM said that Energy Minister Yervand Zakharyan was instructed to set up a commission for calculating the wages and that the debt would be repaid by July 15. The Armenian government repaid the full amount of back wages to all the workers of Nairit Plant yesterday, on August 4.

Since late 2014 Nairit workers were staging protests supported by some Armenian political forces. They demanded 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.