Situation on Granit factory in focus of international attention

Though Belarus was included in two lists of abusers of trade union rights, the issue on violations was not considered in Geneva.

A meeting of the ILO's Committee of Experts finished in Geneva, chairman of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions Alyaksandr Yarashuk told Radio Svaboda upon returning from Geneva.

“This time, none of 49 countries with violations of trade union rights and 25 with gross violations of trade  union rights was discussed. It happened for the first time since 1926. Employers from many countries attending the meeting walked out during the plenary session. They refereed to a provision of the regulations and said some items had not been agreed on with them. The regulations will likely to be amended to prevent similar situations. It is planned to do this November at the ILO's Council meeting,” Yarashul said.

He said he had had a number of meeting in Geneva, including the new ILO's head.

The trade union leader spoke about the current situation in Belarus at the meetings:

“We arranged our further steps. They are ready to arrive in Belarus at any time. Now, everything depends on the good will of the Belarusian government. No one is allowed to come without a special invitation. In any case, the situation on Granit factory will be in focus. It is the  situation of the factory that reflected the abnormal and difficult state of trade union rights in our country.”

In 2007, the EU stopped applying trade preferences on Belarus due to violations of the rights of trade unions. It resulted in a 3% increase of export duties for Belarusian goods. The Belarusian authorities should implement 12 conditions of the MOT to be returned in the generalized system of preferences. The conditions include giving independent trade unions an opportunity to register primary organizations, giving them the right to work on the same conditions with official trade unions and stopping persecution of people for belonging to trade unions.