“I have always thought that civil servants are protected by law”

“For many years, I and people like me and Ihave helped job seekers, and now we are in their situation, it is an irony of fate,” said Narine Matinyan, who worked as the director of the Shengavit Regional Employment Center before the reforms began.

The reforms started from the RA law “On Making Amendments to the Law on Social Assistance”, according to which the Joint Social Service has been operating in the Republic of Armenia since April 1, 2021. In addition to the powers of the Social Security Service, this service has the powers of the State Employment Agency and the Office of Medical and Social Expertise, as well as the regional centers of social assistance.

The purpose of creating a unified social service is to introduce effective mechanisms for the implementation of government policies in the field of social protection, with the expectation that the integration of the four bodies in the field of social protection will enable the process to be smoother and more efficient.

By the way, it was envisaged that as a result of merging different departments, employees would not be reduced (it was also announced during the presentation of the amendments to the law from the NA tribune), as the employees of the merging institutions will be employed in the newly formed service.

However, it turned out that many employees of the State Employment Agency still lost their jobs. If many of the employees of the State Social Security Service were reappointed, about 70% of the employees of the regional centers of the State Employment Agency lost their jobs. This is despite the fact that on various occasions, former Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Mesrop Arakelyan assured that no civil servant would lose his job as a result of the reforms being implemented. Moreover, on April 21, in response to complaints from system employees, the ministry issued a clarification stating that no staff had been reduced as a result of the merger. But time has shown that these were only promises.

In fact, after the formation of the Unified Social Service, many employees of the State Employment Agency with many years of work experience did not receive job offers, and on April 21, the directors of the centers were fired due to layoffs. Moreover, since April 12, vacancies for temporary vacancies have been announced on the website of the newly established structure, about which there was no official announcement, in which other persons can also participate.

Workers who lost their jobs have gone to court to defend their rights, hoping to get a job back.

This is the opinion of Tsoghik Bezhanyan, who has been the head of the information department of the State Employment Agency since 2002.

According to her, there is no sense in participating in the competition for the same position, as someone else has already been appointed to that position. Besides, the logic of choosing the specialists appointed as a result of the competition is not known.

Narine Matinyan is also a long-term employee of the system. He has worked in the system since 1992, and since 1997. On October 1, 2006 he was appointed the director of the Shengavit Regional Employment Center. She has been trained many times in leading centers, participated in courses organized for the “School of Employment” program.

According to Narine Matinyan, they met with the chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Health and Social Affairs, the deputy ministers coordinating the sphere of Labor and Social Affairs, but the problem was not solved. He also applied to the court, and the prospect of participating in the competition is vague for him, that he submitted the necessary documents for the vacancy of the director of the regional centers of Shengavit, Malatia-Sebastia, Ajapnyak administrative districts.

Styopa Dokhoyan, chairman of the State Employment Agency, and Anahit Asatryan, chairman of the Republican Union of Trade Unions of Public Institutions, Local Governments and Public Service Employees of Armenia, are also concerned about the violated labor rights of professionals who have lost their jobs.

In a conversation with WomenNet.am, Anahit Asatryan said that some of the laid-off employees are union members, so she is concerned about them. As the chairman of the branch union, she applied to the leadership of the Joint Social Service to find out how lawful their actions are and on what grounds a vacancy was announced.

Time will tell how the issue of unemployed professionals will end.

Full text in Armenian