MINSK, 10 June (BelTA) – It is necessary to work out a system to inspect private companies in order to find out why they fired employees in the last few months. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the relevant statement during the government conference held on 10 June to discuss topical social and political matters, BelTA has learned.
Aleksandr Lukashenko noted: “I've been recently getting complaints from people within the framework of the so-called election campaign. I am sure you've been getting them, too. I am particularly outraged by the fact that private companies fire people in Minsk, other cities (it typically happens in cities). I wouldn't go as far as to describe it as mass layoffs but they fire a lot of people. I have already made a statement regarding the problem. Firing people is one thing, but the companies fire people because they fail to sign in support of the so-called alternative candidates.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko asked Head of the Belarus President Administration Igor Sergeyenko, Chairwoman of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus Natalya Kochanova, and Head of the Belarus President Property Management Directorate Viktor Sheiman to help deal with the problem and work out a system of inspections to check private companies. “It does not happen at state-run enterprises,” the head of state noted. “I want you to find out why people were fired in the last three months. I would like to publicly state: if they want to work properly in Belarus and benefit the country without offending people, they must give the jobs back to the people and give them their due salaries due to unreasonable layoffs.”
The president was indignant: “I asked not to lay off people due to this pandemic at the beginning of the year. The election has nothing to do with it. But no, they started firing people. The employers are brazen enough to tell people to feel free to quit if they support Lukashenko. What is all this? I received complaints from several people and wanted the reports verified. They sack unprotected people, people who have no dad, no mom to protect them.”
“Which means we should bring these bourgeois to their senses. No one is allowed to offend ordinary people. Not because they put me in power once but because such things must not happen in our country,” the head of state stressed.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said he wanted the prosecutor general, the State Control Committee, and other agencies and municipal authorities to inspect these “potbellied bourgeois” in order to make them feel responsibility for their employees. “What kind of a system is this? They can afford going to Goa, the Canary Islands, some other islands but they can't pay good salaries to people and even dare fire them,” the head of state pointed out.
