‘They Said, They will Pay’: Protesting Government Staff Made Redundant Told to Wait till Tuesday

“The social affairs minister [Artur Grigoryan] told us that with the prime minister’s instructions, they’ll give us our severance by Tuesday. I don’t know how true that is. We’ll see,” said Anahit, one of many government employees protesting in front of the government building today who used to work in the Armenian state department responsible for issuing social assistance payments but were recently made redundant.

According to her, the minister said he spoke with the prime minister for half an hour: “They said, they will pay.” The labor and social affairs minister also said there are banks that have signed agreements, that they’re going to open branches attached to the banks which, like their dissolved department, will make cash payments.

“The social affairs minister promised they will give us jobs in those branches because we have work experience. I think these branches will open by March, but the minister didn’t give us a timeframe. Going by what the minister said, we have to wait for their call. We’ll wait till Tuesday, we’ll see, how true they are to their word. We’re no longer pinning our hopes on HayPost because HayPost isn’t all that it makes itself out to be. If our complaints are not heard, we will continue to fight,” Anahit said.

The demonstrator also noted that they have another complaint: for the delay in getting their severance pay, they are to receive 0.15% of their set pay, which the ministered promised they would receive along with their severance.

“But as for how true that is, we don’t know,” Anahit summed up.