Here’s How Labor Rights are Being Violated in New Armenia: MP

Georg Petrosyan, a member of the Armenian National Assembly from the Prosperous Armenia faction, announced on his Facebook page that he has received a letter from the former director of the Ijevan Medical Center, which he has published verbatim.

In the post, it is stated: “Here’s how labor rights are being violated in new Armenia. The ball is in the court of the Supreme Court...”

TEXT OF THE LETTER
“Hello Mr. Petrosyan. I am writing to you because I see how concerned you are about the real problems affecting the people. I do not expect you to address my issue, but I want you to be aware of what is happening in Ijevan. If this is the situation in the birthplace of the Prime Minister, I can only imagine what is happening in the other regions.

I was selected as the director of the Ijevan Medical Center through a competition in 2016. After the regime change, the former governor Vahe Qalumyan (now an MP) tried to dismiss me (I do not know if it was because I am from Artsakh, a Republican, or simply an undesirable candidate for them). I did not give in easily. I should mention that during my time in office, a debt of about AMD 30 million was cleared at the hospital, and we generally made progress in the qualitative indicators of assessing medical organizations.

After the elections, the new governor still dismissed me from work (of course, with my consent) under the condition of promising to secure employment for me. I realized I was being deceived; I took advantage of my three-day right (to withdraw my application), but they stated that my professional work was too much. I appealed to the court. The court of first instance and the appellate court decided to reinstate me and compensate me. Now they want to appeal to the Supreme Court, despite knowing that there may not even be any proceedings.

During this time, they subjected me to vetting from head to toe, threatened me, reopened criminal cases against my colleagues if I did not withdraw the lawsuit. It raises a rhetorical question: do the relevant authorities not know what is happening here? I will protect my rights through legal means until the end, even if it means going through that difficult path.

Here is how they treat a specialist who has worked in the region for 25 years. It is interesting how we can waste the state budget and present it to the Prime Minister in attractive packaging while avoiding responsibility. I am deeply concerned about this atmosphere of injustice, even though we have all fought for justice. Thank you for addressing the demographic issues that are also very concerning to me. I do not know if there is a way out, but there is hope thanks to you and the other fighters for justice.”