By Jemma Sardaryan

In May 2019, Sirarpi Gevorgyan read a Facebook post  advertising packaging jobs in a sewing factory paying 7,000 drams ($15) a day. 

After calling the phone number mentioned in the post, Gevorgyan is told that she has reached an employment agency and that if she wants the job, she must hurry to the office to register. There aren’t many vacancies, she’s told.

Gevorgyan needs to show her passport and pay a 5,000 dram registration fee. 

Shushanik Nersisyan, Director of the Zatik Staff Center on 90 Aram Street in Yerevan, takes care of the paperwork, describes the sewing factory job, and accepts the payment. Afterwards, when Gevorgyan asks where the sewing workshop is located and what the name is, Nersisyan refuses to provide any information, saying the employer will contact Gevorgyan personally within the week.

Gevorgyan says that Nersisyan  promised that within a week from the moment of signing the contract, the agency would draft her bio and would provide it to the employer in the sewing factory.

"A week passed and I I did not get a call. I thought that maybe they forgot or that  there wasn’t any work. I decided to call myself. I called the agency and Shushanik Nersisyan answered the phone. She told me to check the date of my registration and call her back.  I did and told her the employer hadn’t called. She spoke in a loud voice, telling me to be patient. She hung up on me. I called her back and she became more aggressive. I felt like she was telling me not to call her. Days passed and I called her. There was no answer,” says Sirarpi Gevorgyan.

The contract Gevorgyan signed with the agency clearly outlines the responsibilities and rights of the agency and the applicant. According to the contract, the agency is obliged to offer the vacant position of the client according to his/her professional data and wishes, and the contractor (i.e. the person applying for the agency), under Contract 2.3.1, undertakes to pay a one-time non-returnable 5,000 dram fee. Paragraph 2.2.1 of the Treaty indicates that the contract enters into force for a period of six months from the date of its signing.

To verify  whether ort not the agency had violated its contract, we sought the assistance of lawyer Tigran Sargsyan.

"The procedure for providing and accepting services is stipulated in the Civil Code. The contract clearly specifies the obligations of the parties and, if the contract so envisages, which party should provide service. In this case, when a service hasn’t been provided, naturally, the citizen may demand the amount. However, there is also one important circumstance. The agency may not return the money, arguing that a job search has been carried out for that particular citizen. There’s a shortcoming when it comes to defending the rights of people. In order to prevent  fraud, it is necessary that the sector be specifically regulated. It would be desirable and legal if employment agencies are licensed. Current legislation does not require such a license and any person may establish such an agency today and start a business. The danger is that such agencies can charge thousands of citizens such sums and never do any work for them. Therefore, the work of such agencies would be halted,” said Tigran Sargsyan.

There are a number of posts in the social media about the Zatik job agency written by those who complain that they were defrauded and duped. Some of the posts date back two years.

"There are  thousands of people  who come in every day. I sign contracts and rarely ask about the jobs they are applying for. Then I watch them sitting. I work alone. You must understand me,”  Nersisyan said when this reporter visited her at the office. Her telephone was constantly ringing.

When asked to comment about those who have expressed dissatisfaction with the agency’s operations, Nersisyan  said it hard to please everyone. She finished by declaring, “If they don’t like it, they shouldn’t apply.

This reporter went to another job agency, the Job Center on 4 Arshakunyats Street, to see what the operation was like there. I registered to see what would happen. Staffers provided basically the same contract as the Zatik agency. Here, the registration fee is 3,000 drams, and the contract is good for one year. Upon registration, the agency provided a number of job listings to applicants who could then phone and schedule an interview. The listings were actual jobs. and the employment agency calls the applicant back within two days to see whether or not they applied for the specific job. 

"Our agency has a two-year history, but we managed to get a reputable name in this short period. The main applicants receive job vacancy information through adverts. This is in the initial period.  Our clients then spread the work about our reputability to their friends. People see the submitted advert. They call and visit the agency to apply for a specific job. We’ve had cases when we sent a professional-oriented client to special training courses and later got them work. These are basically accounting courses. If a person  has applied to us, has been found a job, and comes back to us after one year, we provide the service free of charge,” said Job Marketing Director Ian Tevanyan.

When asked where they get their job listings, Tevanyan said that they mainly use the Spyur information system and that employers contact the agency with job openings.

Tevanyan says there are many job placement centers in the market and that some engage in fraud.

 He notes that he has applied to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs for a license and that he wants the sector to be supervised. He has submitted a proposal whereby agencies would have to publish data about their revenue and the number of people they place in jobs. The ministry has yet to respond.

I talked with Sona Martirosyan, Head of the Public Affairs Section at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, who confirmed that the ministry does  not regulate the operations of private employment agencies.

Martirosyan couldn’t say whether the situation would change anytime soon.

(Jemma Sardaryan is a 4th year student at Yerevan State University’s Faculty of Journalism)