WHO OWES WHOM?
ara-zohrabyan
24/12/09
"It’s not right when they choose the "Cafesjian Museum-Foundation"
as the target. It had to be aimed at the DHAA Company," lawyer of the
Foundation Ara Zohrabyan told "A1+" touching upon the protest organized
by the group of employees working on the project near the Cascade.
According to the employees, they work for the "Cafesjian
Museum-Foundation" and have helped construct the Cascade complex and
the Tamanyan square and the construction on the "Cafesjian Museum" is
underway. According to the protesters, the Foundation owes 120-140,000
dollars to 34 workers who are demanding that money from executive
director of "Cafesjian Museum", Michael de Marshe.
According to Ara Zohrabyan, "Cafesjian Foundation" has no relations
with its workers because they work for DHAA CJSC.
Ara Zohrabyan confirmed that Mr. De Marshe was truly appointed
director of that company. "But that still doesn’t mean that the DHAA
employees automatically become the Foundation’s employees. That is
not the case both legally and de facto. The Foundation and the DHAA
have no relation at all," he said, underlining that the Foundation
was only a client that transferred the amount foreseen for completion
of activities to the DHAA.
According to him, Mr. De Marshe tried to solve the issue of salaries
and wanted to understand what debts the DHAA has. "De Marsh is the
kind of person who wants to peacefully solve the matter in favor of
the employees," assured the lawyer, adding that DHAA has had more
obligations than its actives. In other words, DHAA can’t pay even 20%
of its salaries if it is not declared bankrupt and put up for auction
with its items.
"If those employees demand their salaries from DHAA, the company
will simply go bankrupt and will not be able to give the entire
amount and none of the share-holders will be held responsible,"
said Ara Zohrabyan.
According to him, when Mr. De Marshe started looking into the issue,
it turned out that the employees didn’t have any documents. Those
issues are in the process of clarification and according to Zohrabyan,
DHAA has two share-holders of which one has pledged to pay 50% of
his shares to the employees under the condition that the employees
present real figures that the DHAA owes.
"As a lawyer, my advice to the employees is that they can receive more
from DHAA through friendly relations rather than going to court and
trying to solve the issue there. In other words, they should keep
calm, although it is their constitutional right to hold protests
and appeal to the court. But if the share-holder lacks good will,
we will move to the field of law," said lawyer Ara Zohrabyan.