Government Staff Made Redundant have been Given New Jobs: Labor Minister

Distribution of social assistance payments for February began yesterday. Already, 1 billion drams has been distributed during the first day, said RA Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Artur Grigoryan, responding to RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan’s question during a government session today.

Grigoryan said they began to distribute January payments on Jan. 5 and 6, while the process began earlier in February. The one billion drams already distributed comprises approximately 25% of all those in Yerevan on social assistance.

The minister also said, the issue with long wait lines is also being addressed.

“As of yesterday, I have to say, everything was normal, the payments were distributed normally. And let me add one thing, Mr. Prime Minister, around 31 people [who made redundant because] of the dissolved payment services department have been accepted for work by HayPost, 121 have refused work, and at this time, when the ministry signed contracts with other payment organizations, already they’ve accepted work in these payment organizations and in this sense, based on yesterday’s figures, 122 employees have been given jobs in other payment organizations,” said Grigoryan.

Recall that government employees who used to work in the Armenian state department responsible for issuing social assistance payments but were recently made redundant protested on a few occasions in front of the government building, saying their department was dissolved on Nov. 4, however, they only found out about it on Dec. 26. The department’s 270 employees were left without a job. The protestors were demanding work as well as the severance pay due to them.