{"id":299700,"date":"2020-03-25T18:25:37","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T14:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/epress.am\/?p=299700"},"modified":"2020-03-25T18:33:11","modified_gmt":"2020-03-25T14:33:11","slug":"ministry-of-labor-moves-to-protect-worker-rights-during-state-of-exception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2020\/03\/25\/ministry-of-labor-moves-to-protect-worker-rights-during-state-of-exception.html","title":{"rendered":"Ministry of Labor Moves to Protect Worker Rights During State of Exception\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the state of exception (emergency) declared since March 14, 2020 has resulted in <\/span><\/i>issues<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/span> for workers, a need has emerged to address gaps in the current labor regulations. The Ministry of Labor and Social Issues has drafted a bill of amendments to the Labor Code and has urgently circulated it. While the draft has not reached the Parliament yet, the Ministry issued a press release where it described key amendments proposed to the Labor Code.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The draft bill proposes the following amendments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2013 If distance work is possible, then employees cannot be considered idle, their wages must be maintained fully.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2013 Distance work and changes to labor and rest time should not be considered a significant change to the labor contract. Such flexibility will allow the employers to skip their obligation to preliminarily notify of contract changes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2013 In all those cases when employers in the private sector are not able to continue their business operation due to a state of emergency, including by organizing work at distance, the employer shall pay its employees an amount not less than the minimum hourly wages set out by law. The wages of state and community employees, as well as workers of the Central Bank shall be maintained fully.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2013 In all those cases when the employee has unused vacation time, and operations cannot continue during the state of emergency, the employer shall be mandated to provide this unused vacation if the worker requests it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2013 In all those cases when an employee was objectively not able to attend work or was late or worked part-time due to the state of emergency, employers are forbidden to sever the job contract unilaterally or to penalize the employee. In these cases, wages must be maintained in an amount proportionate to the time the employee spent working.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n