Monday, July 1 2019 19:39

ArmInfo.Workers of the Alaverdi Copper Smelter blocked the interstate railway Yerevan-Tbilisi from 10:00. They are protesting against the termination of employment  relationships with 200 employees of the company.

"There is information that since June 30 of this year, 200 employees  of the plant will not be renewed labor contracts (they were extended  three times - Ed.), That is, they will be dismissed," one of the  participants of the action Armen wrote on his page on FaceBook  Kirakosyan. As a result, the initiative group of employees of the  copper smelter decided to cut off the interstate railway, as well as  all entrances and exits to the enterprise. The action will be carried  out until an acceptable solution is given.

On February 13, residents of the city of Alaverdi have already  blocked the interstate railway Yerevan- Tbilisi. Then they protested  against the closure of the Alaverdi Copper Smelter and demanded that  the enterprise be restored.

The work of the plant was suspended on October 19 last year. It was  the 4th stop of blast furnaces over the 250-year history of the  company. The main reason is environmental problems, violations of  permissible standards for emissions of sulfur dioxide, as a result of  which the company was fined 380 million drams ($ 700 thousand) and  was ordered to reduce emissions by 90% before December 25 of the  current year.  The problem is compounded by the fact that the  property complex of the company, belonging to the Valeks group of  companies, is secured by the VTB Bank loan of $ 390 million taken for  the development of the large Teghout copper-molybdenum deposit, the  operation of which was discontinued at the end of last year, also due  to environmental issues after the suspension of co-financing by one  of the foreign co-lenders.  Under these conditions, loan servicing  has become extremely unaffordable for the enterprise and a serious  decline in the level of profitability of the Alaverdi plant, in fact,  may lead to its bankruptcy.

At the same time, according to the requirements and conditions of the  Labor Code, until the end of October, all employees of the company  were given notice of staff reductions. According to these notices,  the decision of the employment relationship was envisaged to be  implemented within five days after December 24th.

But the president of the Vallex group of companies ordered to  postpone the settlement of labor contracts for two months, after  which employees receive new notifications to solve the problem from  February 28, 2019.  Meanwhile, on February 20, the Vallex group of  companies invalidated these notifications, while the new ones  established a new term for termination of labor relations - April 30,  2019. Reported losses of employees of the enterprise, as reported,  will be from the personal funds of the president of the Vallex group  Valery Mezhlumyan. During this period, all personnel of the Armenian  Kapr Programs Program, on whose balance sheet the Alaverdi Combine is  located, were paid a salary in the amount established by law to  remunerate an employee who is in an idle time of no worker's fault in  the amount of two thirds of the average hourly wage. For the third  time, the termination of employment contracts was postponed until  June 30. Thus, it turns out that since July 1, about 200 employees of  the enterprise, directly engaged in production, joined the army of  the unemployed.

Note that Vallex Group (VallexGroup) was established in 1998 and  includes 20 subsidiaries and affiliates.  Among them were Teghut  CJSC, founded in May 2006, 100% of the CJSC shares are owned by  Cyprus- based Teghut Investments Limited, 100% of whose voting shares  in turn belong to Armenian Kopr Program CJSC, which is fully owned by  Valery Mejloumian, and BaseMetals CJSC, which operates a copper-gold  deposit in the village of Drmbon, Martakert district, NKR,  ArmenianCopperProgramme CJSC (ACP), which operates the Alaverdi  Copper Smelting Combine .