“Labor rights are often violated due to the lack of awareness of the employee.” UNC:

What problems do employees face as a result of not formalizing their employment relationship with the employer? The most recent examples are related to the deprivation of state compensation during the pandemic for this very reason. There are many cases when employees realize the consequences only when they reach retirement age… And it is not only about the lack of documents while working in the informal field, but also about obvious mistakes in the existing documents… WomenNet.am was told about such cases specialists of the legal department.

Arshaluys Avetisyan, a resident of the Nubarashen community of Yerevan, was left out of her retirement due to an incorrect entry in her workbook about four years of working at the Republican Veterinary Sanitary Station. On the advice of the Legal Department of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Armenia (WUA), he applied to the Joint Social Service. in addition, the year of employment is written with deletion.

And since the documents on the staff of the Veterinary Sanitary Station were not archived, it was not possible to find out who was responsible for the incorrect entry in the workbook, so it remained to follow the advice of Anna Barikyan, the legal adviser of the WHO, that is, Arshaluys Avetisyan has now applied to the court to restore her four years of unregistered work experience.

Experience shows that the examination of the disputed right in the courts is sometimes delayed, as a result of which the prospect of a fair solution creates skepticism among the injured employee about the restoration of his violated rights.

In a conversation with WomenNet.am, Anna Barikyan, the legal adviser of the WTO, equally emphasizes the role of the employer in good faith and legality, as well as the awareness of the employee.

– The problem is that employees are mostly unaware of their labor rights, often do not even take their copy of the employment contract to get acquainted with their working conditions and obligations, – says Anna Barikyan.

According to her, complaints about the violation of labor rights are raised after the termination of the employment contract or during the final settlement. There are also many cases of improper records related to the procedure of keeping a workbook, which are a consequence of not being archived in time by the liquidated organizations. Such issues are challenged in court.

According to Anna Barikyan, a significant part of the complaints in the above-mentioned cases is received by the trade union confederation from the regions of the republic, where the working documents of factories and organizations liquidated during the first years of Armenia’s independence are not preserved and not archived.

She says that there are many cases of violation of working rights related to working conditions and working hours, especially in all sectors of the economy, especially among young workers in the trade sector, including young girls and women, who often agree to low-paid, no-time hours, work that does not meet other requirements. According to her, in case of violation of labor rights, the legal department of the UTU provides free consultations, the UTO Organizational Training Center conducts seminars-discussions, prepares radio-TV programs, videos … And all this has one goal – to raise the level of legal awareness of employees.

Full text in Armenian