Leanid Sudalenka To Official Trade Unions: Where Were You, When We Struggled With Decree #3?

Official trade unions are acting with the only goal — to show off.

Legal inspector of labour at the REP Independent Trade Union Leanid Sudalenka commented upon the initiative of the Belarusian Trade Unions Federation to make the order of subjecting to material responsibility not so strict, the website praca-by.info writes.

Mikhail Arda, the leader of the biggest trade union movement of the country, the Belarusian Trade Unions Federation (over 4 million members), declared that it is necessary to reconsider the order of subjecting employees to material responsibility. By now, the scope of payment for shortage or damage can be as huge as possible for those who work under contract, and no bigger than several average monthly salaries for those who are protected by a collective agreement. Mikhail Arda said it was unfair.

The leader of the Belarusian Trade Unions Federation voiced his statement in the course of the session of the National Council on Labour and Social Issues. He was fully supported by the State Control Committee. The Belarusian Trade Unions Federation intends to address to the Supreme Court for the elimination of this injustice on the legislative level.

A legal inspector of the REP in Homel, lawyer Leanid Sudalenka often comes across material responsibility: members of the REP Trade Union, who are accused of shortages by their employers, address him:

— I welcome this step. But this is not even a half-measure. This is a small step. Mikhail Arda leads the largest trade union structure of the country, and he needs to go ten steps ahead, run ahead of the locomotive — and he is only patching holes. The wind goes through the window, and he tells how to replace the glass, despite the fact that the whole house is on fire.

Leanid Sudalenka believes that such statements of the Federation are acts of parade:

— The Belarusian Trade Unions Federation only pretends that it cares about the rights of the employees. I, just like our REP Trade Union, welcome any change which facilitates improvement of the labour conditions. However, changing the order of subjecting to material responsibility is just such a small step... Where was the Federation when our Trade Union struggled against the “unemployment tax” earlier this year? This was a perfect occasion to demonstrate own enthusiasm!

Praca-by.info reminds that, in February this year, the Independent REP Trade Union offered the Belarusian Trade Unions Federation to join forces and struggle with the “social parasites decree” together. Leader of the Homel branch of the REP Viktar Kazlou contacted Chairman of the Homel regional association of trade unions of the Belarusian Trade Unions Federation Aliaksei Niaverau, offering him to join the campaign for the abolishment of the Decree #3, but the latter did not agree.