Belarusian Workers Forced To Work In Cold Shops

Enterprises have no money for heating because of debts.

Trade unions start monitoring the temperature regime at enterprises

We enjoyed fairly tolerable weather in November, the temperature was a couple of degrees higher than last year, without snowstorms and piercing winds. However, this fact could not please employees of those enterprises and organizations, where heating is still not turned up. It's one thing to observe the dank autumn out of the window in a cozy office, and it's quite another to feel it with your skin, working in a frozen shop floor, 1prof.by writes.

The Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus has already received several appeals regarding the non-observance of the temperature regime in the workplace. The Federation position is unambiguous in this case: the employer is obliged to provide the stuff with the working conditions stipulated by law.

Debts froze on

Literally the other day, heating was switched on at the Minsk Automobile Plant. It is not on till now at the Minsk Plant of Automatic Lines named after P.Masherau. As the enterprise administration says, everything is ready for the heating season, but the matter depends on the money – the plant owes energy department about 230 thousand rubles, and they need to pay at least 100 thousand rubles, which are not yet available (funds are now being sought to pay off salary debts) to be heated.

The employees say that the current situation is a consequence of the three-fold jump of the dollar, when the land tax, tied to the currency, and practically calculated at an increased ratio, became almost unliftable. Among other things, the enterprise had contractual obligation in Russian rubles and, because of exchange rate differences, worked at a loss.