A woman or a girl who respects herself, cannot work in such conditions.” Facebook poll

In the frequent conversations about decent work, we usually mention, first of all, the issues of decent pay for work, while the appropriate working environment and conditions are no less important, that we still have many jobs that are far removed from the basic notion of decent working conditions…

Our question to the users of the social network referred to the working conditions, in particular, to certain restrictions or requirements set by the employers. The results of the survey were unexpectedly painful in the sense that a large number of cases were revealed when employees were simply subjected to inhumane demands. For example, in the case of an 8-10-hour work schedule, it is forbidden to sit down, or at least the minimum break required by law is not provided.

Meanwhile, it should be reminded that according to Article 152, Part 1 of the RA Labor Code, after the end of half of the working day (shift), but not later than 4 hours after starting work, the employees are provided with no more than 2 and a half hours to rest and eat. a break of not less than an hour. According to point 2 of the same article, the break for eating is not included in the working time, and the employee uses it at his own discretion. The employee has the right to be absent from work during that break.

Given the stories of women and girls in the survey, it should be noted that, in fact, the above article is often ignored by employers. Moreover, it turns out that the violation of the right to employees is one of the most common forms of labor rights violations, especially in the commercial sector, and it is often about large and well-known supermarkets, which should be aimed not only at a high level of service culture, but also at the same level of work. … In all cases, we publish the stories without names, maintaining the style of the posts…

It is noteworthy that the majority of users who responded to the Facebook survey were fired, not enduring the conditions offered by the employer. It is considered that every employer, especially when it comes to the private sector, sets the rules of the game, which are mainly presented when hiring… But this does not mean that the demands on employees should be inhuman…

By the way, according to the law, the working conditions should be stipulated in the contract, but there was not even a mention of it in the respondents’ notes… Most likely, the working conditions were the result of verbal agreements…

It should be noted that in response to a number of media reports about the exploitation of employees in shopping centers, the RA Health and Labor Inspection Body made decisions on imposing administrative penalties on several employers. The Human Rights Defender’s Office also addressed the mentioned issues by making an informative video on that topic last year.

Full text in Armenian