70-year-old Haykanush Tutunjyan received the award “Citizen of the year” during annual anti-corruption award ceremony dedicated to the international anti-corruption day. It is due to mention that is was organized by the Armenian Young Lawyers Association” NGO in cooperation with CSOs’ Anti-Corruption Coalition in the framework of “Multi-Faceted Anti-Corruption Promotion” project NGO funded by EU and co-funded by the OSCE office in Yerevan, and implemented by “Armenian Young Lawyers Association” and the partner organization “Freedom of Information Center” NGO.
70-year-old chemist by profession Haykanush Tutunjyan has worked in “Nairit” plant over 40 years.
Currently Mrs. Haykanush does not work. Her labor contract has been terminated on the initiative of the contractor on 16 February this year. She says despite the fact that they are good professionals however the old age workers were dismissed from work, so that “Nairit” does not continue accumulating debts.
On April 2, Haykanush Tutunjyan applied to the court with the assistance of the Armenian Young lawyers Association, with a claim of unpaid salary and the interest accumulated as a result of non-payment.
Before the court session “Nairit” had entered the phase where all the employees were forced to sign a contract where they agree to waive their right to the interest of the principal amount of debt. 05:06-05:43: In this case, the main decisive significance of the problem was that the employer did not show a good faith attitude. As a full member of labor relations the employer had to comply with and fulfill his obligations in good faith. The employer had deviated from the basic requirement, the amount of interest, which was accumulated as result of non-payment of the salary due to the citizen. Arnold Vardanyan, AYLA Consultant said.
On the assumption of the fact that the interest is also considered to be the citizen’s property, so failure pay the interest infringes the woman’s property right. Mrs. Haykanush refused to sign the contract and continued struggle to restore her infringed rights through the court.
The court decision restored Mrs. Haykanush’s infringed rights. The Court granted the women’s claim completely and obliged “Nairit” to pay the whole amount of the salary and the accumulated interest. The total amount subject to exaction was 1,5 million AMD.”
“In this case Mrs. Haykanush became a victim of dishonesty. As we all know, dishonesty leads to corruption and is an integral part of corruption. Any citizen shall fight against corruption, and shall carry out this fight in the scope of his/her abilities, as far as there is no reason to wait. While there are many reasons to start fighting against corruption,” A. Vardanyan said.
