FORMER PILOTS DEMAND PAYMENT OF THEIR TEN MONTHS WELFARE BENEFITS

YEREVAN, August 23 (Noyan Tapan). On August 23, about 20 former pilots
gathered in front of the RA government building demanding that they be
paid their welfare benefits, which are ten months overdue. According
to the agreement signed in 1997 with the Head Department of Civil
Aviation, the pilots who are discharged in accordance with their own
application, were fixed lifelong monthly benefits in drams equivalent
to $25-105. However, since October 2002, 169 pilots have been deprived
of these benefits, about which the Head Department of Civil Aviation
made the decision in July 2003. The pilots applied with the claim to
restore their welfare benefits to the court of the first instance of
Yerevan’s Malatsia and Sebastia Communities that met their demands
only partly by making a decision that the Head Department of Civil
Aviation should pay welfare benefits for only ten months (October 2002
– July 2003).