Builder suffering revenge for strike

The administration of Mahilou building department #129 warned Mikalai Rasyuk, activist of the Free Trade Union of Belarus, he may be dismissed.

According to the activist, a ground for this was the fact he had expressed his discontent of working conditions at construction of a milk-producing farm in village Duzhauka (the Chavusy district), Radio Svaboda reports.

“After I had appealed the labour inspection, makeshift barracks became better. A special bus was given to builders from Mahilou to get to the contraction site. I received a notice saying I would be transferred to hourly payment, if I disagreed, I would be dismissed. Firstly, I was unnecessarily sent to village, where I don’t have work in my speciality, now I am threatened with firing. I am an electrician. I was sent to Duzhauka allegedly due to operational need. The administration can’t forgive a strike to me. Though builders received what they had earned,” Mikalai Rasyuk notes.

The administration of the building doesn’t admit its guilt in persecution of the builder for the strike and notes Rasyuk allegedly refuses to sign a labour contract.

“If he signs the contract, he can continue to work. We make contracts with all builders to increase their wages. We want to pay bonuses to our employees, and to him, too. He was offered to sign a contract, but he possible misunderstood us. He is following me everywhere and saying: “Fire me, fire, I will be better for me.” He is writing complaints day and night. He is writing to the prosecutor’s office, to the technical inspector. He has a kind of mania. He is working for his image, drawing workers to different actions because of low payment. But we have the highest payments among contractors,” Alyaksandr Latushkin, director of the building department, says.

Mikalai Rasyuk was sent to Duzhauka after he had organized a two-hour strike of builders, who demanded their payments. Rasyuk was one of the organizers of a protest action. The strike was held on November 28, and on December, the trade union activist was sent to the Chavusy district.