In
Armenian many NGOs function in various fields of work from the fundamental
rights to the protection of the birds’ rights.

None
of those NGOs function in the field of the right to work, as a result we have a
number of issues, but no one raises the issue, for instance every day we meet a
taxi driver, who works 16 to 19 hours daily and once a month takes threedays
off, many of us are acquainted with people, who work without an employment
contract, thus placing the employee in a favorable state. Besides no taxes are
paid for those workers and they can be dismissed any time without explanation
or consequences.There are numerous examples to prove this point. 

The State Labor Inspectorate adjacent to the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs haven’t got the statistics for 2011, but we can conclude from the data of previous years that the citizens generally turn to it in cases of having work problems in the fields of production, service, trade and education. 480 complaints were submitted last year and the violated right to work of 273 applicants was restored. 

A
confederation of Trade Unions functions in Armenia, but we have practically no
information about the effectiveness of its functioning.

“We
received 600 letters of complaint like this year, but every letter of complaint
is legally grounded, even if it is , we can’t say the we restore the violated
rights, as people do not stand up for the rights till the end”, Boris
Kharatyan, Vice President  of the RA
Confederation of Trade Unions, told www.hra.am

They have only one court action, where the citizen agreed to struggle till the end and the case in the RA Court of Appeal, as the First Instance Court did not satisfy plaintiff’s demand. “Sometimes we turn to the employee, which agrees that a mistake has been made and corrects it, but that happens very seldom”, says Kharatyan.

Though not very often, but sometimes the citizens turn to the court on their own initiative. “I turned to the State Labor Inspectorate with the problem of unpaid salary and wrong calculation of salary. However nothing happened, I did not receive a single written document from the Inspectorate about their investigation and decision. So I applied to the court and solved the problem through the court system”, says Anna Poghosyan

This summer, Lora Movsisyan, doctor of Nork Clinical Infectious Hospital, applied to the Court of General Jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash Administrative Districts against the chief doctor Ara Asoyan. Doctor Lora Movsisyan claims to recognize the legal act of severe reprimand, to eliminate the disciplinary penalty and pay her unpaid salary, which is proscribed by law. The investigation is underway.

Although in the field of human rights the right to work is not protected, the active citizens though not very often, but take the steps in order to protect their rights.