Builders ready to announce hunger strike of protest :: Charter'97 :: News

Carpenters and concrete workers who work at reconstruction of a hostel in Horki earn only 300,000 BYR a month, though they have high qualification and work full time. 8 workers of building office No. 57 of Mahilyou building organization No. 12 addressed a complaint to Governor Barys Batura and the head of labour inspection. They are ready for protest measures of last resort.

The situation is banal, but nevertheless hurtful: people work scrupulously and still earn a scanty pittance, BulletinOnline.org informs.

“This money is not enough for subsistence, and many people have families, children… How can we look in their eyes and what should we explain? The leadership of the country and of the region has set a task to increase in volume of house-building, but such wages would hardly inspire us,” the workers underline in their address.

They ask a reasonable question, why such things happen while an average pay in the industry is 700,000 BYR. Who is to blame for this paradoxical situation?

A member of the Belarusian Radio and Electronics Workers’ Union (REWU) Uladzimir Yakavenka, who signed the appeal, comments the situation in the following way:

“We are determined, and we won’t work for pennies. If nothing would change soon, we are game to do anything: even to stop work and announce a hunger strike”.

Will the authorities react to the complaint of workers in a proper manner, or will they disregard their demands? The answer would be clear in the near future.