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SWEEPING CONCERNS: STREET CLEANERS UNHAPPY WITH NEW COMPANY'S OFFERS
SOCIETY | 14.01.15 | 15:41
Photo: www.yerevan.am
By SARA KHOJOYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
RELATED NEWS
Capital Clean-Up: Foreign garbage-removal operator starts work
in Yerevan
The new year started with protests for the employees of Kentron
Cleaning, which is in the process of liquidation. Employees of the
company are demanding their unpaid salaries and new jobs.
On January 5 dozens of employees gathered in front of the Presidential
Residence in Yerevan and were promised that within one week their
problem would be solved. No solution was found, however, and this
week has seen daily protests.
At issue in the matter is replacement of Kentron Cleaning as the
city's main contractor for public cleaning. Many of its staff were
elderly women who could be seen in the capital streets before dawn
with brooms and pans. Workers were paid according to the number of
square meters assigned to their territory.
Yerevan City Hall said that the protesters were striking during
the holidays, thus the center of Yerevan was left without cleaning,
and the company of Sanitek had to employ more staff for that task.
The Lebanese-based company won a 2012 tender to take over the capital
cleaning job. When it began the contract in December a company
representative said Sanitek had invested about $12.5 million in the
work in Yerevan. It said it started with about 150 employees but
expected that number to eventually double and that jobs would be
offered at $500 a month.
The problem arose after employees of Kentron Cleaning did not receive
their final salaries. Then the media said that more than 100 people
are left unemployed, and a number of them met Sanitek and Yerevan
City Hall representatives on Tuesday.
According to the chief of Sanitek, Madlen el Bolboli, the protesters
have refused jobs that would add responsibilities to their previous
duties (at higher pay), and do not agree to being relocated to streets
other than the ones they previously cleaned.
"We constantly make new suggestions to the employees and give them
opportunities, but they organize protests instead of working," el
Bolboli told RFE/RL's Armenian Service (Azatutyun).
Among Kentron Cleaning employees only 20 work with the new operator
now; others have decided to fight for their wages in court.
Sanitek employed new staff during the holidays and currently it has 30
vacancies, offering yard-cleaning for a salary of about $170 per month.
"[Yerevan mayor[ Taron Margaryan came and made a speech in the square,
saying, 'people, everything will be all right, we need this many
employees, we have a mechanism, with a monthly salary of $500'. And in
the end they brought us to a dead-end, fired and threw us aside. Don't
they have pity? 150 people are jobless. One is homeless, another one
is paying loans," Kentron Cleaning former employee Ofelya Chobanyan
told Azatutyun.
http://armenianow.com/society/59791/yerevan_sanitation_street_cleaning_kentron_cleanin g_sanitek
SOCIETY | 14.01.15 | 15:41
Photo: www.yerevan.am
By SARA KHOJOYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
RELATED NEWS
Capital Clean-Up: Foreign garbage-removal operator starts work
in Yerevan
The new year started with protests for the employees of Kentron
Cleaning, which is in the process of liquidation. Employees of the
company are demanding their unpaid salaries and new jobs.
On January 5 dozens of employees gathered in front of the Presidential
Residence in Yerevan and were promised that within one week their
problem would be solved. No solution was found, however, and this
week has seen daily protests.
At issue in the matter is replacement of Kentron Cleaning as the
city's main contractor for public cleaning. Many of its staff were
elderly women who could be seen in the capital streets before dawn
with brooms and pans. Workers were paid according to the number of
square meters assigned to their territory.
Yerevan City Hall said that the protesters were striking during
the holidays, thus the center of Yerevan was left without cleaning,
and the company of Sanitek had to employ more staff for that task.
The Lebanese-based company won a 2012 tender to take over the capital
cleaning job. When it began the contract in December a company
representative said Sanitek had invested about $12.5 million in the
work in Yerevan. It said it started with about 150 employees but
expected that number to eventually double and that jobs would be
offered at $500 a month.
The problem arose after employees of Kentron Cleaning did not receive
their final salaries. Then the media said that more than 100 people
are left unemployed, and a number of them met Sanitek and Yerevan
City Hall representatives on Tuesday.
According to the chief of Sanitek, Madlen el Bolboli, the protesters
have refused jobs that would add responsibilities to their previous
duties (at higher pay), and do not agree to being relocated to streets
other than the ones they previously cleaned.
"We constantly make new suggestions to the employees and give them
opportunities, but they organize protests instead of working," el
Bolboli told RFE/RL's Armenian Service (Azatutyun).
Among Kentron Cleaning employees only 20 work with the new operator
now; others have decided to fight for their wages in court.
Sanitek employed new staff during the holidays and currently it has 30
vacancies, offering yard-cleaning for a salary of about $170 per month.
"[Yerevan mayor[ Taron Margaryan came and made a speech in the square,
saying, 'people, everything will be all right, we need this many
employees, we have a mechanism, with a monthly salary of $500'. And in
the end they brought us to a dead-end, fired and threw us aside. Don't
they have pity? 150 people are jobless. One is homeless, another one
is paying loans," Kentron Cleaning former employee Ofelya Chobanyan
told Azatutyun.
http://armenianow.com/society/59791/yerevan_sanitation_street_cleaning_kentron_cleanin g_sanitek