Vladik Hovsepyan and Ilya Barseghyan, former employees of the Kapan Mine Enrichment Plant, were both disabled while working there but have been unable to get compensation for the past two years. They took their case everywhere they could, but the officials involved simply continued to transfer their papers from one place to another. The only option left to them was a hunger strike, and they set up a tent opposite the Syunik Marz administrative building in the central square in Kapan on the evening of June 11.

“The owner of the plant said, ‘Don't knock on my door, we don't owe each other anything. Sort it out with your Armenian authorities.' They said, ‘Sue us,' but the court said, ‘There's nothing we can do; we can't hear your case,'” said Ilya Barseghyan. “Last year we talked to the Minister for Labor and Social Security, Aghvan Vardanyan, and he said, ‘You will definitely receive compensation,'” added Vladik Hovsepyan.

The administration of the Kapan Mine Enrichment Plant, where the hunger strikers used to work, was dissolved two years ago, and the Dino Gold Mining Company took over. But the new management did not take on the responsibility of compensating workers who had suffered occupational injuries. The 170 workers who were disabled while working at what was formerly the Kapan Mine Enrichment Plant have been denied any compensation for the past two years. The Dino Gold Mining Company does not consider itself the legal heir to the Kapan Mine Enrichment Plant. The company owner, though, had little interest in explaining their position. During the hunger strike, journalists waited for a long time near the gates of the company before they got some answers to their questions. Finally, company lawyer Ara Ghonyan announced from the guard post that the company was not the legal heir, and he considered it unnecessary to comment on the injured former employees.

Vladik Hovsepyan and Ilya Barseghyan do not know whom to ask for the sums of 1 million and 366 thousand drams respectively that they are owed.

Point 16 of Government Decision no. 579, adopted on November 15, 1992, states that work-related injuries or occupational diseases sustained as a result of duties performed during employment will be compensated by the legal heir in case the company in question is dissolved, and if a legal heir does not exist, then the government body responsible for social issues will provide compensation out of the state budget. However, another decision adopted by the government on July 22, 2004 declared Point 16 of article 579 void. As a result, Dino Gold Mining has managed to avoid paying compensation by not considering itself the legal heir and the government, too, has relieved itself of responsibility.

The protesters, Vladik Hovsepyan and Ilya Barseghyan, discovered on the final day of their hunger strike that nobody had taken on the responsibility of providing compensation. They then collected their sleeping gear and posters and ended their hunger strike. That was on June 15. According to Yevgeny Kojemyakin, head of the Armenian Union of Miners, Metallurgists, and Jewelers, a discussion was scheduled in the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs on that same day in which a final decision was to be taken regarding compensation for some 170 workers who had been disabled while working at the Kapan Mine Enrichment Plant alone. But no such decision was taken, and the minister, Aghvan Vardanyan, decreed that the existing law be used as a guideline in this matter.

Dino Gold Mining Company has now provided compensation in only five cases of work related injury. In three cases, the workers had died, and two others were injured after the company had been privatized, under the administration of the new management. The issue of compensation for the family of 22-year old Karen Harutyunyan, who died at the Shahumyan mine on July 5 of this year, has as yet not been fully addressed. Harutyunyan is survived by his mother, Aida Khurshudyan, who was dependent on him. She says she was told at first that she did not have the right to any compensation. After a lengthy protest, Khurshudyan was asked to present them with medical and other documentation, but no decision has been taken as yet. Dino Gold Mining Company provided the family with US $1,000 for funeral arrangements, another $1,000 to prepare the gravesite, and 100,000 drams to cover the 40th-day memorial services. But the company has not yet paid the US $1,500 they promised for Karen Haroutyunyan's gravestone.

During the first half of this year, the Armenian Union of Miners, Metallurgists, and Jewelers received thirty complaints from workers in mining enterprises in Akhtala, Sotk and Alaverdi. According to Anastas Pahlevanyan, vice-president of the union, plant directors rarely order compensation for workers who sustain work-related injuries, occupational diseases, or other health problems, or else they offer such compensation belatedly and rarely pay it.

There is no law protecting the rights of workers who are the victims of such occupational hazards. A law was due to be passed by parliament during its spring session this year, but it has been delayed for various reasons, according to union president Kojemyakin. A law like this would resolve the issue of compensation for disabled workers. If the bill were passed, a fund would be set up to address this problem. Whether or not an accident occurred at the workplace, companies would be made to transfer a certain amount of money to the fund on a monthly basis. Enterprises undertaking high-risk work would transfer 1.5% of their salary funds, medium-risk enterprises would transfer 1%, and the rest would have to transfer 0.5%.

In the past, compensation in such cases was paid through the Armenian Union of Miners', Metallurgists and Jewelers, but the union has not been fulfilling this responsibility for the past eight years. Instead, according to Kojemyakin, the union planned to introduce a clause in collective contracts with companies wherein in case of the death of a worker, the employer would have to make a lump sum payment of 5 million drams to the family, in addition to covering funeral costs. This proposal has been under discussion with the owners of the Dino Gold Mining Company and Agarak Molybdenum Company for more than a year, but there has not been a positive response yet to this suggestion for a collective contract.

Armine Petrosyan