Lukashenka Prohibits Agricultural Workers To Quit Without Special Permission

Serfdom returns?

Specialists and employees of agricultural enterprises do not have the right to quit or find another job without the permission of their boss. Aliaksandr Lukashenka stated this today at a conference call on the issues of the harvesting campaign.

“Once again I want to publicly say this. Today, not a single specialist, not a single head of an agricultural enterprise can be transferred to another job or quit without the decision of the chairman of the district executive committee. He quit — no one in the country can hire him until he submits a certificate from his previous place of work, a normal characteristic. And vertically. Not a single chairman of the district executive committee and others, according to their regional register, can also quit their job. It's time to put things in order with the staff. The same thing — not a single machine operator, milkmaid, and so on in an agricultural enterprise (collective farm, state farm) can take a step left or right without the decision of the leader. A closed vertical and responsibility,” the press service quotes the dictator as saying.

Lukashenka announced the demand to impose a ban on the movement of functionaries and specialists in the countryside without the knowledge of the regional and district executive committees back in October last year, and then several times mentioned his order.

“I repeat once again: there should be no serfdom under any circumstances. But all this must be somehow managed. What kind of order is this: we educate agrarians here, hundreds, hundreds of them graduate, but we don’t have enough personnel in agriculture!” Lukashenka said then.