A number of former employees of the “Alex Textile” Company located at 5/3 Bagratunyats told Iravaban.net about the alleged violations of the law during the years, which were recorded during their employment there.
One of the former employees, who wished to remain anonymous, told us that he had been working in the Company since 2017, and was relieved in 2024. “One of the abuses they carried out was to make so many reductions at the same time. People were relieved in streams: 100 people, 400 people, but they said: write an application for dismissal, quit your job according to your application.”
In an interview with Iravaban.net , the “Alex Textile” Company reported that there were no reductions in the Company in 2024. The Company, as an operating economic entity, has both newly hired and releaved employees during its activity.
“However, it should be noted that in recent months the number of employees dismissed from the Company according to their application exceeds the number of newly hired employees, which is due to the decrease in the production and sales volumes of the Company. The Company calculates and paid the final settlement to the dismissed employees in the manner and amount prescribed by the law when terminating the employment contracts with its employees.
However, our interlocutor notes that when the employees talked about the staff reduction, the answer was: “You were released according to your own request.” “We have been released, currently very little amount of money is being transferred to the accounts of different people as settlement. We called the accounting department, tried to understand how the X amount was calculated, for example. The accounting department answered that they had calculated starting from 2020.”
To the employees’ question why the calculation was made from 2020, if they have been working since 2017, the answer was that the calculations will be made from 2019, but the work of 2017-18 will not be included. “They say: we sent you on leave in those years and paid the payment for leave. Actually, we were at home for 40 days, we received AMD 12,000. It was a forced leave because we were sent home to carry out repairs in their premises. They said: you will return as soon as the renovation is finished. I did not ask them for a leave, but even if they formulated it as a leave, I am sure that the amount cannot be AMD 12,000, if my salary was AMD 80-100 thousand, then the leave payment should be within that amount.”
The Company informs that it is unclear to them what kind of downtime we are talking about in 2017-2018, because during the mentioned period the Company worked in its normal mode and made payments to its employees accordingly.
According to the former employee, when the employees requested documents, “Alex Textile” replied that the computer contains the data of the last 5 years. Documents were ultimately not submitted. They reasoned that they closed the papers and put them aside. “We applied to various bodies: the Anti-Corruption Committee, the Health and Labor Inspection Body, they were called for interviews, but they did not show up for various reasons. We asked why you do not submit documents, maybe we were not registered in those years, the answer was negative.”
The workers did not receive their copy of the employment contract. According to them, the reason is to work 40 hours a week specified in the contract and receive the appropriate amount in return, when they worked on Saturdays as well and did not receive money for that. “If my working hours are 40 hours per week and I received AMD 100,000, it means that I worked for them for free on Saturdays for 7 years. I can also claim the amount of my Saturdays for so many years. I left a fingerprint, it shows that I worked. Even Mr. Samvel Aleksanyan came one day and was surprised to see us there on Saturday. We are sure that he is not aware of these abuses.”
Our interlocutor notes that the employees were mostly people aged 50 and over who were close to retirement age and were afraid of losing their jobs. “They were told to reign if they do not afgree with the terms, they took advantage of their helpless state. I note it as a morally bad step. People thought that if they left, they would not have a chance to get accepted elsewhere.”
Referring to the issue of employees working more than 40 hours in the Company and receiving inappropriate payment for it, “Alex Textile” informed that the relations between the Company and employees are regulated by the Labor Law and the labor contracts signed on the basis of that law, which, among other issues, regulate the working hours of those employees. And in all the cases when the employees of the Company were involved in overtime work, including on holidays, they were paid in the manner and amount defined by the Labor Law.
The Company is ready to discuss and present all the clarifications through personal meetings in the office with the employees who have questions about the received salary, final calculation and other issues.
“We also inform that many of our former employees, who had questions about working relations of our Company and wanted to discuss with the Company, the Company was willing to listen and gave full answers to all their questions, and they have no claims against the Company.”
