19 March 2024, Tuesday, 8:25
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Independent Trade Union Saved Worker Blackmailed By Her Boss

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Independent Trade Union Saved Worker Blackmailed By Her Boss
Leanid Sudalenka

REP trade union helped a former cleaner of Rechytsa district consumers society to get rid of forced labor and material responsibility.

"This is simply slavery," – kept repeating the former worker of Rechytsa district consumers society, while telling her story to praca-by.info. REP trade union helped the woman to get rid of forced labor and to avoid unfair financial responsibility in the future.

A cleaner of Rechytsa district consumers society, where the audit revealed a major shortfall, appealed to REP trade union. Since the cleaner is also a financially responsible person, she was obliged to pay. The woman, having no idea where such major shortfall could come from and fearing that similar situation could happen in the future again, wrote a letter of negotiated resignation, since she didn't trust the leadership of the organization after the incident. The employer refused to allow the resignation and decided to blackmail the woman. He said he would not dismiss the woman until she repays the shortfall.

– I was in a completely desperate situation, when a friend advised me to contact the REP trade union. I was not able to settle that issue myself, – the former worker of the Rechytsa district consumers society told.

– They carried out stocktaking incorrectly. A major shortfall was revealed. These shortfalls are assigned to all stores of the district consumers society. There was an inspection from Minsk, but they have not found out how such shortages could appear. And then the workers should pay for it. And you can imagine what kind of salaries we have... People get in slavery. They don't want to fire. It's just a real slavery. One woman was fired with case of distrust. Now she cannot find any other job.

The Homel regional legal inspector of the REP trade union Leanid Sudalenka helped the woman to prepare a statement to the employer, stating that the payment of the shortfall and the employee's desire to quit the job are not related to each other.

– An employer is obliged to dismiss an employee one month after the employee has submitted a resignation notice, if the employee was working under an open-ended employment contract, – Leanid Sudalenka explained. – The employer can claim to repay the shortfall through court. I stated this in the statement, which the woman passed to her employer. After one month there was still no reaction from the district consumers society. We appealed to the prosecutor's office to respond to the violation of the law on citizens' appeals and demanded to punish the chairman of the district consumers society with a fine of five basic units. I don't know if he was punished, but the woman was immediately fired with the wording 'by agreement of parties'.

– I was very lucky that Leanid helped me, consulted on how to write the statement. Thanks to the trade union, I was fired by agreement of parties. Otherwise, I could be fired with case. And here things happen, which I have never seen for all the time of my working experience. I am very grateful to the trade union for helping me to settle this issue, – the worker said.

Leanid Sudalenka presumed, that the shortfalls were not occasional in district consumers societies and he suggested that the law enforcement agencies should pay very close attention to these facts.

– Shop sellers once told me how the district consumers society supplied 150 kilos of bananas to a village shop. A few days later the bananas turned black, and the workers were told to throw them away, and then the cash shortage fell upon them. Apparently, these bananas had not been sold in the city. They quietly wrote them off for the rural trade, and then forced workers to pay. Otherwise, what is that supposed to mean? Who would come up with an idea to bring 150 kilograms of bananas to a village store? I believe that the authorities are responsible for that. But nobody wants to deal with this problem. Therefore, I underline it again for all the employees, who are accountable for assets: you have to feel certain about the quality of the goods you receive. If there are doubts, you should immediately make a written request to the director, that the goods are of poor quality. Then I will be able to exonerate workers from responsibility in court entirely. Because the law says that a worker must inform the employer of any threats to product safety. And here the director with the head decided between them to get rid of rotten bananas, and in order not to rack their brains, not to return the bananas to the supplier, they hung up these 150 kilos on poor workers,– the lawyer said.

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