Supreme Court Rejects Suit of Initiators of Contract System Abolishment :: Charter'97 :: News

The Supreme Court did not satisfy the suit of the initiative group of citizens who intended to collect signatures for abolishment of the contract system. The citizens asked the court to abolish the ruling of the Central Election Commission who refused to register them. The court confessed the groundlessness of the CEC refusal, but stated that the proposal to amend the labor legislation contradicted to the Belarusian legislation. As a result the CEC refusal to register the initiative group was left in force.

Bear in mind, that the reason for the refusal of the Central Election Commission to register the draft laws On amendment of the Labor Code of the Republic of Belarus and On ratification of ILO Convention #158 concerning Termination of Employment at the Initiative of the Employer was a conclusion of the Ministry of Justice that the proposed amendments contradicted to the Constitution. The ministry stated that according to the Constitution presidential decrees are superior to laws and decree #29 lets employers to use the contract system without any limitations.

Another reason for non-registering the initiative was that the CEC allegedly found violations in the procedure of holding the constituent assembly of the initiative group. The commission stated that some of the persons, whose signatures were put in the member lists, had not attended the assembly. At the trial it was found that the mentioned persons had attended the assembly and put their signatures in the lists. Nevertheless, the court agreed with the CEC because of the alleged contradiction of the draft law on ratification of the ILO convention to the Belarusian legislation.