350 RESIDENTS OF VANADZOR WERE LAID OFF
Gayane Sargsyan

A1+
[11:53 am] 20 January, 2009

Three hundred fifty workers of the "Avtogen-M" gas-welding equipment
manufacturing factory were laid off starting January 1 of this year.

"The main reason for lay-offs is that we are working in conjunction
with the Russian firm. They purchased the products and can’t pay the
money. They currently owe us nearly 100 million drams. In this case,
there is no sense in working and accumulating. What’s the point of
procuring new products if they can’t pay for them? In Armenia, sales
were at a minimum," says head of the factory Artak Ghazaryan.

Factory workers received an average wage of 60,000 drams and the
administration still has trouble paying the total 50 million drams
it owes to the workers for the months of September-December.

The head of the factory said that they were forced to estimate the
total earnings of workers at yearend in order to avoid any extra
expenses.

The company has appealed to the government for support and the
government has proposed a 14% interest rate loan.

"The support would have been great if the factory was still
functioning, but how are we going to pay off the interest rate in
these conditions?" says the head of the factory.

The factory administration hopes that their Moscow-based partner’s
financial state will improve by spring and he will be able to get
the factory back on its feet.