LABOR LAWS OVERHAUL: SOME TRADE UNIONISTS RAISE OBJECT TO ‘RIVAL’ BODY ESTABLISHMENT
Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporter
Economy | 04.06.10 | 14:11
Hakobyan says trade unions’ poor work led the government to offer a
new model
A government-drafted package of amendments envisaging an overhaul of
the current labor laws has been a matter of public debate since last
year when it was first introduced to lawmakers.
The new bill now awaiting a second-reading parliamentary approval
would amend as many as 109 out of 266 articles of the current Labor
Code, including those concerning trade unions. A number of trade union
leaders have been opposing some of these amendments. In particular,
they raise objections to the proposed establishment of a body that
they deem redundant and an unnecessary rival to trade unions.
“What is the essence of changes in the law? Is this initiative aimed
at ensuring that the interests of employees are more protected or at
expanding the rights of employers?” Garnik Vagharshakyan, the head
of the republican association of Armenian universities’ trade unions
organizations, tells ArmeniaNow.
Vagharshakyan says that while some of the amendments do have
acceptable elements, he still sees danger in the proposal to set up
a new representative body supposedly for protecting employee rights.
“This puts an equation mark [between this planned body] and the trade
unions already operating under the Law on Trade Unions,” he explains.
Lawmaker Hakob Hakobyan, who heads the parliamentary committee on
social affairs, says that the draft amendments have been discussed
many times also with trade union leaders.
“Trade unions are not available at all enterprises in Armenia today.
There are companies where the interests of staff are not defended by
anyone today because they have no trade unions,” says Hakobyan.
He says that the existing trade unions are not well-functioning
bodies, which, according to him, led the government to opt for a new
model in which employees will have elected representatives advancing
their interests. Such representatives, by law, are to be elected by
a majority vote and staffs will need to conclude collective contracts
with them.
The pro-government lawmaker insists that changes in the Labor Code
are made in order to improve the business environment, protect the
interests of employees and employers. He also insists that interests
of employees or employers cannot be protected separately and that
trade unions in the form they existed in the Soviet Union cannot
effectively protect the interests of workers, because “by definition
they must take upon themselves functional duties to protect interests,
which is a post-Soviet syndrome.”
“During the Soviet times trade unions were so-called
‘mandatory-voluntary’. Today, we don’t have this notion of
‘mandatory-voluntary’. We have trade unions that must prove with
their work to staffs that they genuinely pursue the defense of their
interests,” explains Hakobyan.
Still, many appear to remain unconvinced as they fear that such
representatives will be more prone to manipulation from employers and
in fact will misrepresent the staffs. Similar misgivings, however,
have always existed in the case with trade unions as well.
Trade unionist Vagharshakyan acknowledges that trade unions in Armenia
have not been reformed since the Soviet times.
“But we should not forget that trade unions are making their first
steps and civil society is still in the making in Armenia,” he retorts.
Hakobyan says he is surprised at the attitude of trade unions not
accepting a body that would protect the interests of workers.
“We say we accept the idea of workers’ representatives defending
workers’ interests. And trade unions should cooperate with them.
Workers’ representatives are not rivals to trade unions,” says
Hakobyan.
From: A. Papazian