Unvaccinated Individuals Will Be Deprived of Bonuses: Hraparak

The media has already reported that vaccination has become a real tool of terror against state employees in public institutions. In particular, state employees are threatened that if they do not get vaccinated, they will not receive bonuses, and this will be considered a disciplinary or service violation. We previously reported that the State Revenue Committee has gone further, withholding the salaries of unvaccinated individuals for the month of July.

Sources from the police have informed Hraparak.am that similar pressures are being exerted on them as well, with officials being forced to get vaccinated under the pretext that there is a political decision in the country that everyone must comply with. Those who do not comply will either not receive bonuses or be completely dismissed from service.

We attempted to verify this information with the police, asking whether it is true that police officers who are not vaccinated are deprived of their bonuses and whether vaccination status affects a police officer's ability to receive bonuses. Furthermore, we inquired about the criteria for distributing bonuses within the police force.

The media outlet received the following response from the police: "The criteria and procedure for granting bonuses to employees of the Police of the Republic of Armenia are defined by the Police Chief’s Order No. 21-L of September 11, 2019, on ‘Establishing the Criteria and Amounts of Bonuses for Police Officers and Annulment of Police Chief’s Order No. 3-L of March 21, 2019.’ According to the first point of the annex to the specified order, bonuses are granted to police officers for quality work or the execution of special assignments. Based on the evaluations of the effectiveness of a police officer's work conducted by the head of each separate unit, the officer is presented for rewarding, not rewarded, or presented for a reduced amount of reward; this process does not involve separate accounting within the Police of the Republic of Armenia. At the same time, I would like to inform you that complaints regarding the deprivation of bonuses due to not being vaccinated have not been discussed within the Police of the Republic of Armenia."