Starting 2 December, the employees of Nairit Plant, erstwhile chemical giant of Armenia, began receiving notifications of upcoming job cuts, Anush Haroutiunyan, Spokesperson of Nairit Plant, told ArmInfo.
She said employees must be notified at least two months before dismissal in conformity with the Armenian laws.
Haroutiunyan said mass layoffs will start on 6 February. Only 400-500 of nearly 2000 employees will be dismissed. According to her, the employees will not receive their salaries for 12-18 months. The Plant's arrears of wages totaled $15 million, the spokesperson said.
Reportedly, forced bankruptcy has been launched at the Plant. Earlier, Armenia's Energy Minister, Yervand Zakharyan told journalists the salary debt to the "Nairit" plant's workers will be paid off till the end of 2014. However, the minister did not say, where the funds will be taken from, as the plant did not function for a long period of time. Earlier, he said that the payments were made at the expense of the profits of the state energy companies - Yerevan Thermal Power Plant and High Voltage Electric Networks of Armenia. But this time, he said that the funds will not be attracted from the above mentioned companies. As for further exploiting of the Nairit plant, the minister said that they have been working in this direction, "The plant should be reset", - he said.
To recall, in the middle of September the minister said that the debt of the Nairit plant amounted to 102,8 billion AMD (about $250 million), 63,1 billion of which is a credit that was not paid to the CIS Mezhgosbank, 8 billion AMD - a debt to the state budget and 5 billion AMD - salary to workers.
Nairit has been standing idle for quite a while already, with its employees haven't been paid wages for as long as 15 months. The plant's debts total 50bln AMD or $130mln (including 5bln AMD in unpaid wages). In the 1980s Nairit had almost 10-12% of the global rubber market. In 2006 90% of Nairit Plant was sold to Rhinoville Property Limited for $40mln. The remaining 10% is owned by the Armenian Government. Since Apr 2010 the plant has been idle, with its shares given as security against the CIS InterStateBank's loan.