Women's riot in Baranavichy

The sewing factory in Baranavichy delayed wages for 10 days.

As intex-press.by (IP) reports, factory employees gathered near the office of the chief engineer in the morning of October 31 to learn when they would get their salaries. They say they have been demanding money every day for almost a week.

“I haven't paid utility bills. I will have to pay penalties. I also need to pay my loans, pay for my children's kindergarten and school, but I don't even have money to buy bus tickets!” they employees say.

Chief engineer Valiantsina Tamashchuk asks the workers to calm down and start working.

“If you want to talk to one another, do it during the break. I advise you to work until the end of your shift. You must come to work on Monday. If you don't come, it will be considered an absence without leave. Nonpayment is not a ground to be absent from work. You will be the first to know that we have money to pay wages,” Valiantsina Tamashchuk said.

Tamashchuk has been the acting director since former director Dziana Brashishkine resigned on October 24.

“She quit upon mutual consent with the investor,” Valiantsina Tamashchuk told IP.

Employees say the former director promised on her last working day that salaries would be paid.

“She smiled and said that we would get our money. She then resigned. They have been promising every day that we will have our salaries, but the month is coming to an end,” angry workers say.

They are at a loss: they don't want to work for free but fear they can be fired if they start a strike.

Tamashchuk says the wages were delayed due to the purchase of new equipment, new washing systems.

“It took more time than we expected to get and install the new equipment. We were sewing clothes, but we were not able to wash them before shipping. We didn't have sales and money. It began in August. The first lots were shipped only on October 28,” the chief engineer said.

The factory borrowed 1.5 billion rubles from the investor to pay wages, but problems with documents appeared, Valiantsina Tamashchuk says.

“We cannot say they people are not right in this situation. But we cannot do anything,” Tamashchuk notes.



It became known later that employees received wages in the afternoon of October 31. The employees, however, plan to send a complaint to the Labour Inspection and a prosecutor's office.

“The director quit and we lost our money. We don't understand what managers do and who pays us, the factory or the Russian investor. They lay responsibility on the investor and say Russia doesn't give us money. The issue should be solved,” the employees say.

IP failed to contact the investor.