Ghettos for factory workers to appear in Belarus?

New rules of hiring will enslave people.

Henadz Fiadynich, the chairman of the electronic industry trade union, spoke to charter97.org about Lukashenka's proposal to hire people only if they have reference letters from previous employers.

“The Labour Code doesn't provide for it. I am sure Lukashenka knows about the so called telephone rule at state-owned companies. HR managers call the previous employer and ask about job seekers. If they had a competition for a vacancy, it would be a good idea to require recommendation letters to choose the best applicant,” the trade union leader thinks.

He notes that the Belarusian ruler likes to repeat that Belarus is in the centre of Europe, but European countries have never demanded reference letters from factory workers. Workers tried to sell labour at the highest price possible.

“Factories need workforce badly. This is a true fact. Even factory managers know that reference letters of employees won't make products of Belarusian enterprises competitive,” Henadz Fiadynich said.

The trade union leader is convinced that Lukashenka's desire to sign employment agreements with all employees was already fulfilled.

“Signing an employment agreement is not a duty of the employer. It is his right. To make it a duty, they need to issue a special order and set up a ghetto for workers. We could hear today that the new rules of hiring will encourage employees to drink less alcohol. But we can see from the statistical data and from practice that people who earn much value their jobs and don't violate rules, don't drink alcohol at work. We cannot say the same about the people who earn 1.5m-2m rubles. They go to work from force of habit and don't fear they can be fired. They have nothing to lose. We need to speak about it. We have to admit that the command economy is ineffective. Moreover, it contradicts common sense. It is necessary to change it instead of introducing reference letters,” Henadz Fiadynich summed up.

We remind that the Belarusian dictator said about improving the hiring rules during his visit to Keramin plant.