Hairdressers on the brink of strike

Workers of the joint stock company “Voskhod”, which is uniting the chain of hairdressing salons with state share, haven’t still received salary for November. It was also promised they would receive money for December in February, 2008.

“Frankly speaking, we don’t already know where complain to,” staff of one of the hairdresser’s on Surganau Street in the capital said to “Belorusski Partizan”. “We phoned to the Minsk State Executive Committee, went to the Committee of State Control, but all in vain. No result. They say no money will be this year... But how should we live? It would be OK, if the y promised to do a recalculation of wages we would receive only in February, 2008 instead of this December. But they say nothing about it! The administration doesn’t even apologize...”

It should be reminded that it’s not a first back pay on “Voskhod”. For example yet New Year 2007 hairdressers and manicure technicians working for “Voskhod” celebrated “at their own cost” – they received money for December 2006 in February 2007! It’s a curious fact that they received salary only after they threatened to go on strike.

Should they probably think about action of protest this time, too?

“We’ve already thought about it,” the hairdressers say. “Thought the ideological workers promised we would just make our situation worse with the strike. They can increase a daily program for us or send sanitation station to us, which can stop work of the hairdressing salon, or impose a huge fine. You understand, any salon has some things to find fault... Though the way things are going, we’ll have nothing to lose...”

The administration of the company “Voskhod” wasn’t glad to hear the answer about the back pay. “It’s our internal affair, we’ll solve it ourselves,” they said.