On 21 August, 2020, a discussion on “Violations of Labor Rights” was held at the “Dialogue Media Center”. Ms Gayane Gevorgyan, Lawyer/Coordinator of the Shirak Regional Branch of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association NGO, Ms Hermine Hovhannisyan, Lawyer of the A.D.Sakharov Armenian Human Rights Protection Center NGO, and Mr. Harutyun Tadevosyan, President of the Gyumri Education and Science Workers’ Trade Unions’ Organization participated in the discussion.
The discussion started with presentation of the information on the legal field in the Republic of Armenia. The information on the existing gaps in the labor relations in the Republic of Armenia in the scope of the Covid-19; the employee-employer relations, the violations of labor rights, as well as the directions of solving the created problems was presented. Hermine Hovhannisyan in her speech, said that the main problem during the spread of the epidemic is that people do not protect their rights due to the low level of legal awareness. Gayane Gevorgyan said that this situation was unprecedented from the aspect of the legislative gap, as well as the the practice of legal regulations for the employers and employees. On this basis, the number of applicants for legal aid was quite large. The role and significance of NGOs was especially important in that regard, as the latter have started providing online or remote legal advice. In this regard, the experience of the ALA office was presented, as a result of which in the period of March-May, 2020 the number of consultations exceeded 800. Concrete cases were presented as well.
Harutyun Tadevosyan in his speech, presented the role and significance of the trade unions, noting that during this period the education sector has raised few issues, but if the situation continues, it will be necessary to reconsider the amount of salaries.
At the end of the discussion, the participants asked questions to the speakers.