Epress.am News from Armenia
Several dozen employees of Yerevan’s idling Nairit chemical plant blocked off the road to the plant on Monday morning demanding that they be paid back wages for the last 5 months. The street was reopened within an hour, after police intervention.
In an interview with Epress.am, Vrezh Sargsyan, an employee of the Nairit security staff, said the plant’s management had promised to pay off the entire debt by December 15th; however, the protesters have been informed today that they would only be getting the salary for July since the plant has been declared bankrupt.
“The fate of the rest of the money remains uncertain; the management has no answers. We intend to continue staging protest actions until we are paid the entire debt,” Sargsyan said, adding that the employees are convinced that they will be able to finally receive their back wages by taking extreme measures only.
After the demonstration ended, several protesters were invited for an hour-long conversation at Nairit director’s office. The employees, however, later told reporters that the director again had refused to give them any specific answers about when they would receive their salaries, urging the protesters to take up the issue with the manager of the bankruptcy case.
Note, on November 28, 2016, Yerevan’s Shengavit district court decided to grant the lawsuit filed by the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) and declare the plant bankrupt. ENA had filed the suit against Nairit in April, 2015, seeking payment of over an AMD 1 billion debt for power.