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Atlant plant suspends work for a week

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Atlant plant suspends work for a week

Employees will receive only two-thirds of the salary.

Radio Svaboda learnt it from a worker of Atlant plant.

“Conveyors were stopped for a week on Friday. We were told that we wouldn't work until June 1. They promise to pay two-thirds of the salary, but wages were already cut in spring,” the worker of the refrigerator plant says.

How do managers explain it? Aliaksandr Mashkou, the deputy director responsible for ideology, declined to comment on the situation on the phone. “Submit an official request and employees responsible will prepare an answer. Such procedures were established in the interests of the plant in order not to cause harm to it,” he said.

Sources at Atlant say the reason for the suspension of work is excess of stock and the absence of orders.

The plant sells most of its products in Belarus and Russia. A part of products is sold in other CIS countries and abroad. Several hundreds of workers from Tajikistan and other Central Asian countries worked at the plant in 2013, but they were dismissed after a number of orders for Atlant's products was decreased. Atlant began to introduce short working weeks in 2014 and even suspend production for several days. Wages were cut.

A similar trend can be noticed in Belarus' entire industry, especially in the automotive sector. According to the Ministry of Industry, more than 90,000 people were working short weeks in January-March 2015, which is three times bigger than in the same period in 2014. Minsk Tractor Plant, Minsk Automobile Plant, Gomselmash and other enterprises regularly suspend the work of their main production lines for several days.

Why don't plants cut staff to optimise losses? Experts note that the artificial employment is preserved at the order of the country's top officials.

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