Employer Cannot Force Employees to Take Unpaid Leave During Emergency, MP Clarifies

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is currently working on a legislative initiative that will regulate employer-employee relations during a state of emergency. This was announced in an interview with Hraparak newspaper by MP Heriknaz Tigranyan.

"These types of special cases are not regulated by legislation. There has been an instruction from the Prime Minister to provide a solution to the issue during this emergency situation. The Government is now initiating a legislative proposal that will be brought to the Parliament in the coming weeks. It concerns an amendment to the Labor Code, which will stipulate that in such special cases, if the employer cannot ensure work remotely, employees should not be sent on unpaid leave, but rather should remain at home and receive some level of compensation. If work is organized remotely, then the full salary must be paid," noted the MP.

When asked what the compensation for workers subjected to mandatory downtime will be, Tigranyan replied, "The draft is still in the working phase, and the Government may make some changes before I provide you with any figures. But it should be such that at least the worker does not receive less than the minimum wage."

Regarding whether this amendment will apply to problems arising during these days, the MP stated that it is being drafted specifically for the cases that have emerged during this state of emergency. "It does not matter when this amendment will come into effect; it is written for this situation and will state that it comes into effect from the time of publication and will apply to relationships that arose after March 16 – that is, from the day the state of emergency was declared."

It is worth noting that today the employees of 'SAS Group' issued a statement saying that their employer refuses to pay wages to employees subjected to mandatory downtime. The statement mentioned that workers are being summoned and pressured to write an application stating that they have taken unpaid leave, otherwise they will be dismissed from their jobs.