28 March 2024, Thursday, 23:24
Support
the website
Sim Sim,
Charter 97!
Categories

BCD activist to challenge dismissal in court

11
BCD activist to challenge dismissal in court

A librarian with 23 years of work experience was fired for her activism.

Sviatlana Hrytsenka, a mother of three children, activist and speaker of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party (BCD) at the local “election” in 2014, challenges her dismissal in court today.

She started her work as a librarian in September 1991, but the centralised librarian network of the Babruisk region didn't prolonged an employment agreement with her in June. Hrytsenka, the 1 class librarian of the children's department of the central library, has never been subject to disciplinary sanctions, charter97.org learnt from the BCD press service.

She received a notice on prolonging the agreement on April 25 and agreed to prolong it. On May 2, director Liubou Skhaba told the BCD speaker that she would not work from June 4 due to the expiration of the employment agreement. Sviatlana Hrytsenka got fired being the chair of the primary trade union organisation of librarians of the Babruisk district.

She explains the dismissal with her activism and participation in the local election campaign. The activist recalls that she resented when the director tried to force librarians on April 11 to buy outdated lottery tickets of April 9. She didn't agree to buy them and raised the problem to the regional level that made the director angry.

Sviatlana Hrytsenka challenges her dismissal in the court of Babruisk and the Babruisk district. She seeks the reinstatement at work, salary for the enforced leave and compensation for the moral damage. According to her, the dismissal affected her health and became stress for her children.

At the trail, the director accused the librarian of poor performance, but failed to explain the absence of disciplinary sanctions. Sviatlana Hrytsenka's colleagues assess her work positively and representatives of the regional committee of the trade union say the director didn't contact them to approve the dismissal of the trade union leader. Taisia Kabanchuk, the coordinator of the BCD regional organising committee, was ordered to leave the courtroom for recording the trial.

The verdict will be pronounced on August 7. The trial begins at 16:00.

Write your comment 11

Follow Charter97.org social media accounts