Today a few workers of the repairing and fire-extinguishing car of the South Caucasus railroad complained during a conversation with “Aravot” that 6 out of 25 workers will be finally fired. Some of them received notices, some of them have been already “let go” – they sit idly at home. By the way, the majority of the fired have a work experience of 10-15 years, are laborers, there are people among them who are extremely needy, are parents of under-age kids. The complainers were particularly angry, because the salaries at the South Caucasus railway were raised at the expense of decreasing the number of workers. “They raised our salaries by 10 percent and fired at the same time. We were happy that they had raised our salaries to 70000-80000 AMD – we felt like men in this hard city”, our interlocutors shared their sensations.
We inquired from Vahe Davtyan, the press secretary of South Caucasus railway, in this regard. He said during a conversation with us that this was a result of internal staffing policy, they made changes, in accordance with reason and they were going not for layoffs, but for staff shifts. According to Vahe Davtyan, during the first 3 years South Caucasus railway shouldn’t have laid off anyone of the 4300 workers, as the obligations provided for, the three years have passed and the number of workers is more than 4300, namely 4367, but the management has not dismissed anyone. “The staff is more than transportation, but since we perform a social function, we are the third biggest employer, we do everything we can to avoid layoffs and to solve the issue through staff shifts”, said Vahe Davtyan.
Nune AREVSHATYAN
