Alaverdi Copper Smelter lays off 210; workers block railway, 1 July 2019

Some thirty workers at the Alaverdi Copper Smelter Plant in Armenia’s northern Tavoush Province gathered outside the factory’s office early today and demanded to know if rumors that 200 workers have been fired were true.

Plant worker Gagik Manukyan told Hetq that the dismissals allegedly took place today.

“Plant management has always told us that everything would work out fine. So, we waited. We’ve been paid on-third our regular wages. Now, there seems to be nothing left. We are faced with a situation where they are telling us that the plant will no longer operate,” said Manukyan.

Samvel Badalyan, another plant worker, says he wants to know who is being laid off...

Armenian Copper Programme Director Lusineh Mejlumyan told the workers that the company had presented three options to maintain the plant to the government...One of the options involved the dismissal of a number of workers as a cost-cutting measure...

Mejlumyan says the government has failed to respond to the company’s request to operate at a lower capacity level, albeit on a temporary basis.

She told workers that the company cannot afford to pay the pollution fines levied against it by various state environmental agencies.

Mejlumyan confessed that 210 plant workers have been fired and that another 80-90 would possibly get pink slips in two months...