Workers in Armenia Reminded About Their Constitutional Right to Strike

The Yerevan-based Human Rights Research Center has issued a statement to inform workers in Armenia who have been boycotting work to protest Serzh Sargsyan’s appointment as the country’s new Prime Minister about their right to strike:

– Striking is every Armenian citizen’s constitutional right, which protected by the RA Labor Code and a number of international human rights conventions.

According to Article 58 of the RA Constitution, workers shall have the right to strike for the protection of their economic, social and labour interests. An employer has no right to restrict the holding of a strike or a worker’s participation in one.

What’s more, according to Article 79 of the RA Labor Code,

1. Participation in a strike shall be voluntary. No one may be compelled to participate in a strike or to refuse to participate therein. Persons that compel an employee to participate in a strike or to refuse to participate therein shall be subject to liability in the manner prescribed by legislation of the Republic of Armenia.

2. Employees participating in a strike are released from an obligation to perform their official functions. The workplace (position) of an employee participating in a strike shall be retained during the strike. The employer need not pay salaries to the employees participating in the strike.

According to Article 80 of the RA Labor Code, after a decision on calling a strike is made and in the course of the strike, the employer shall have no right to:

1. impede all or individual employees to attend their workplaces;

2. refuse to provide work to employees;

3.  subject employees to disciplinary liability for participating in a strike.

4. hire new employees instead of the ones participating in a strike,

The Government of Armenia has an international obligation to ensure the realization of the right to strike, under Article 8 of the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.