Siarhei Skrabets is denied employment at Minsk Automobile Plant for political reasons

11.11.2008. Tags: political prisoners, workers' rights, discrimination.
Source: Charter`97.

The former member of the house of representatives and opposition politician Siarhei Skrabets can’t find a job. Another attempt to apply for a job of a foreman in a foundry shop of the Minsk Automobile Plant (MAZ) was unsuccessful. Though there is a vacancy here, Skrabets was denied the job.

‘A shop manager asked why I didn’t have any service records in my work book since the term of MP had expired’, the former MP said to RFE/RL. ‘I answered I had been in prison. He asked why. I explained. Then he asked if I didn’t agree with the policy of the president. I said I didn’t. Then he told they had had an interview with another applicant and he was more suitable. That was the end. The manager was probably afraid I will lead workers to presidential residence in Drazdy,’ Siarhei Skrabets summed up the results of his attempt to become a MAZ worker.

In the beginning of November Skrabets returned from Saint Petersburg, where he worked in a commercial building firm for a month. The firm had to reduce staff due to the global crisis, and the former “MP” had to come back to Belarus.

Siarhei Skrabets, an organizer of Respublika parliamentary group in the House of Representatives of the 2nd convocation, was arrested in May 2005 and sentenced to 2.5 years of imprisonment for loan extortion. The former MP didn’t take the blame. In his view, he was unlawfully convicted for his opposition activity. Mr. Skrabets was released from jail about 1.5 years ago.

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