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Babruysk District and City Court ordered to hear independent trade union members' suit

A panel of the Mahilyow Regional Court on Wednesday ordered a lower court to hear a suit by members of the Belarusian Free Trade Union at Babruysk Tractor Components and Units Plant complaining about the management's refusal to pay them bonuses earlier this year.

All of the workers of the plant's machine assembly workshop but the members of the grassroots organization of the Belarusian Free Trade Union received 200,000 to 300,000 rubels in bonuses this past May.

The Babruysk District and City Court refused to hear the suit on the grounds that the out-of-court settlement procedures had not been completed.

However, the panel of the Mahilyow Regional Court concluded that the procedures could not have been completed because the company had failed to set up an industrial dispute commission.

According to Mikhail Kavalkow, chairman of the Belarusian Free Trade Union's chapter at the Babruysk Tractor Components and Units Plant, the organization has been under pressure since November 2011. At the end of 2011, its activists collected 1,500 signatures demanding a 100-percent increase in wages for the plant's staff, and the wages were eventually raised by 45 percent, but the company's Director General, Alyaksandr Ahranovich, threatened Mr. Kavalkow with problems. //BelaPAN