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On September 17, the members of the RA NA Standing Committee on Labor and Social Affairs had a meeting with the representatives of the Worker Rights Consortium Member NGOs to discuss the program The Process of Improving Data Base Policies in the Sphere of Labor Rights. It is part of the program Data for Accountable and Transparent Action (DATA), which is carried out by another consortium through the U.S. Agency for International Development. As the Executive Director of the NGO Armavir Development Center Naira Arakelyan has noted, the goal of the program is to improve employer-employee, making them legal relations, by which the citizens’ labor rights would be protected.

Within the framework of the program in the marzes of Armenia awareness works and surveys will be carried out top clarify to what extent are the workers’ rights protected. According to the speaker, the works in the sphere are many, this is need to improve legislative reforms. As the guests informed, social surveys are held among several hundred hired workers to find out the extent of the protection of labor rights. The participants of the program cooperate with the Health and Labor Inspectorate, as well as the Trade Unions and Employers. At the end of the work the Consortium will prepare a report, which will also be submitted to the Parliamentary Committee. The duration of the program is one year. The Head of the Health and Labor Inspectorate Hakob Avagyan has touched upon the problems of the sphere, noting that it is necessary to reach such a regulation that the labor contracts being signed in Armenia be electronic and it will be accessible for the Inspectorate during several minutes. Thus, it is necessary to make legislative amendments. And as a best effort for that work style the introduction of the electronic reports to the tax bodies was noted.

On behalf of the Committee, the Committee Chair Heriknaz Tigranyan expressed readiness to support all the programs, which will be directed to the improvement of the legislation and the protection of the citizens’ labor rights.

The MPs also raised the issues of protection of labor rights for the citizens carrying out seasonal and other temporary works.

The participants of the discussion referred to the problems existing in the sphere, considered necessary the implementation of the steps aimed at their solution. A decision was also made that the Health and Labor Inspectorate will periodically submit to the Committee statistics, where the data on the violation of the citizens’ labor rights will be summed up.