06 October 2022

[Translation prepared by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

More than 100 employees of the Armenian-Italian company "Sartex" went on strike on October 6, demanding that the head of production - Gevorg Gevogyan, was not fired by the company's management.

"Sartex" was founded in 2019 and is engaged in garment production; tailors sew clothes for world famous brands exported to European countries. The company cooperates with famous brands such as "MaxMara", "Moncler", "Peuterey", "DolceGabbana", "Dainese".

The employees state that they are kept overtime at the production without additional pay; they often work on Saturdays as well. According to the labor contract, the monthly salary of tailors is 160,000 AMD, but in reality they receive 100,000 AMD. Several times the employees demanded their copy of the employment contract, yet they did not receive it; moreover, the Italian supervisors insult and mistreat them.

Tatevik Hovhannisyan, an employee of the company, states that their rights were protected by the head of the production Gevorg Gevorgyan; yet, after his departure, the management of the company will start mistreating them again...

According to the employees, Gevorg Gevorgyan was fired for protecting the rights of tailors and for establishing justice in the production.

Tatevik Hovhannisyan says that the employees who did not manage to join the strike were locked in the building, and the strike participants were threatened with non-payment of wages and dismissal...

We also tried to talk with the management of the company. Tigran Khachatryan, a security officer of "Sartex" company, said that Avetis Abazyan is busy and cannot receive us, and Suren Mkrtumyan is not in the area. The strikers said that Mkrtumyan was inside the building a while ago, and no one came out of the door...

The striking tailors have decided not to come to work from tomorrow, and the management has threatened to fire them and not pay them for the last month.