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Eighth Independent Trade Union activist at crushed stone mining company Hranit loses his job

The eighth employee of crushed stone mining company RUVP Hranit has lost his job for being a member of the grassroots organization of the Belarusian Independent Trade Union (BITU).

A fixed-term employment contract with Leanid Dubanosaw, an excavator drive’s assistant, was to have been prolonged on May 16, Aleh Stakhayevich, chairman of the trade union chapter, told BelaPAN. Mr. Dubanosaw was on vacation on that date and had not learned until May 22 that the contract had not been extended. The following day, officers of the personnel management department showed him a dismissal order.

Mr. Dubanosaw plans to file a suit to demand the reversal of the order, Mr. Stakhayevich said, explaining that the man had not been notified of the management’s decision not to prolong his contract.

“Moreover, the contract cannot be terminated unless the employee has committed some disciplinary offenses within a year,” he said. “Dubanosaw had a clean record. However, I do not rule out that he might have been charged with some violations retroactively.”

The suit will be filed to show to all working people that regulations will be enforced only if they stand united, Mr. Stakhayevich said. It is clear that the management of Hranit has simply got rid of the last employee who officially paid BITU membership fees, he said.

In an interview with BelaPAN, Valyantsina Halkovich, head of Hranit’s personnel management department, claimed that two reprimands had been issued to Mr. Dubanosaw for disciplinary offenses. “He found out about this, paid doctors to issue him one sickness certificate, then another, and then went on vacation,” she said. “In other words, he stayed away from work on purpose to prevent us from notifying him of his coming dismissal within five days of the expiration of his contract.”

Unhappy with their low wages and the performance of the pro-government Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FTUB), more than 200 Hranit employees reportedly quit the local FTUB chapter in late December 2011 to establish a grassroots organization of the Belarusian Independent Trade Union. However, the management of the state-owned company has refused to provide the independent union organization with an office, which is necessary for its registration.

In mid-February 2012, the management of Hranit dismissed Mr. Stakhayevich. Six more members of the organization had been fired until the dismissal of Mr. Dubanosaw.

With a staff of 3,000 people, Hranit is the largest employer in Mikashevichy, a city of 14,000 residents in the Brest region.