A letter to the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Mkhitar Mnatsakanyan Dear Mr. Mnatsakanyan, We would like to inform you that 13 former employees of Deno Gold Mining Company have gone to the Syunik Marz General Court demanding the payment of their night shift salaries for the period from 2005 to 2009. Our organization is closely following the policies implemented by the management of Deno Gold Mining Company.  Even now, there are many employees in the company who have not been paid their salaries for night shifts since 2005.  However, once an employee demands this payment, they run the risk of being dismissed, ostensibly for other reasons, as was done with Ashot Grigoryan, a former guard who is one of those having filed a case with the Syunik court. Some of the employees whose salaries remain unpaid are currently abroad.  Some have been fired by the company, others have died.  Those who remain with the company today cannot voice their opinion for fear of losing their jobs. We appeal to the newly elected Union Chairman take this issue seriously. After a visit by the Labor Inspection Unit in 2008, there was an expectation that the company would be made to pay these salaries but, for unknown reasons, the inspection yielded no results.  The company then paid salaries only for the period from 2007 to 2008, and that too only to its current employees.  The main issue concerns the Kapan Mining Unit, which was decommissioned for unknown reasons and workers were left with around 100 million drams in unpaid salaries.  We would not want the same to happen under the current management of Deno Gold.  In these times of economic crisis, this money would come as a relief to the population of Kapan. Based on the information above and the laws of the Republic of Armenia, we request you to obligate Deno Gold Mining Company to pay all outstanding salaries for the period from 2005 to 2009 not just to the people taking the company to court, but also to all those currently employed with the company. Respectfully yours, Ecological Safety and Democracy Development NGO 19.05.2010