RIGHTS OF PRIVATE SECTOR EMPLOYEES NOT PROTECTED PROPERLY IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Jan 9, 2008

YEREVAN, JANUARY 9, NOYAN TAPAN. The rights of employees of the private
sector are not protected properly in Armenia, whereas the rights of
employees of state organizations are protected by law, in particular,
the rights of civil servants are protected by the RA Law on Civil
Servants, NT was informed by Vahan Simonian, the head of the Labor and
Employment Department of the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Issues.

According to him, there are many problems with improvement of the
mechanisms for protection of employees’ rights stipulated by the RA
Labor Code. One of the problems is that no union of employers has been
set up in Armenia so far, although the respective law was passed long
ago. V. Simonian said that the trade unions dealing with issues of
protection of employees’ rights also have many problems in terms of
establishing themselves and working efficiently. In his opinion, trade
union – union of employers – state cooperation will help solve the
problem of protecting the rights of employees of the private sector.

It is noteworthy that the Confederation of Trade Unions of Armenia
currently has 24 branch trade unions with local trade-union committees
at 900 enterprises, which include a total of 300 thousand members.