New restrictions on the activity of the independent trade unions are underway

19.08.2005.

A new intermediary between the authorities and the trade unions has been introduced in Belarus. The order issued by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare set up a council to improve the labor legislation, reports Radio Liberty.
Analysts state that the official Minsk has very tense relations with the International Labor Organization (ILO). According to the legal case ILO No.20/90 the country violates the labor legislation and ignores the ILO Convention ratified by Belarus. The National Council for Labor and Social Issues is supposed to control the situation. However, representatives of the democratic trade unions are barred from it. When last year the special ILO commission worked in Belarus, the government headed by Siarhei Sidorski was recommended to remedy the situation. "However, says the lawyer of the Congress of Democratic Trade Unions Uladzimier Adyniets, what is happening in Belarus now is basically replacement of notions. This council was only called to show the International Labor Organization that the authorities have been doing something to comply with the recommendations". He believes that the proposals tabled by the council in the first meeting aim to further restrict the independent trade unions".
The leadership of the Congress of Democratic Trade Unions of Belarus does not intend to boycott the council. The congress chair Aliaxandr Yarashuk: "We will never drop the full-fledged recovery of our status as the national professional center in the National Council for Labor and Social Issues. However, they have now opened the door slightly. For the sake of the organization we must try to leak through the small gap available. Rather than say: "You want to deceive us!" This is their right. They want to deceive, but we do not want to be deceived. The positions still has to remain constructive".