News on the topic: labor rights
17.02.2023 Rabochy rukh group members receive 11 to 15 year in jail for high treason and creating extremist group
Political prisoners have been in custody for 17 months.
05.10.2021 Release Rabochy Rukh activists Ihar Mints and Natallia Belabekhava
Joint statement of Belarusian human rights organizations
28.09.2021 Human rights groups call to release detained trade union activists
Joint statement by Belarusian human rights organizations
01.02.2021 Workers sentenced to prison terms over political strike
Three employees of the government-owned BMZ steel works were found guilty of “breaching public order” (Part 1 of Art. 342 of the Criminal Code) during a strike demanding political change organized at the enterprise on August 17. Ihar Povarau, who was earlier called a political prisoner, has been sentenced to three years in prison, while Aliaksandr Babrou and Yauhen Hovar – to two and half years each.
27.10.2020 Amid vicious crackdown on peaceful protesters, authorities arrest workers planning strike
The Belarusian government must immediately end police violence against peaceful protesters. Authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all those arrested and facing administrative or criminal proceedings merely for trying to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and their rights to form independent associations and to strike.
10.09.2020 ILO calls on Belarus President to respect workers’ rights and freedoms amid protests
International Labour Organization Director-General, Guy Ryder, expresses deep concern about the detention and arrest of trade unionists in Belarus.
23.08.2017 Civil Rights Defenders: Belarus Must Drop Charges Against Ihar Komlik and Henadz Fiadynich
Civil Rights Defenders calls upon the Belarusian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Ihar Komlik and to drop all charges against Ihar Komlik and Henadz Fiadynich.
14.08.2017 Henadz Fiadynich charged with tax evasion
Henadz Fiadynich, head of the independent Trade Union of Radio and Electronic Industry (REP), has been officially charged with tax evasion, BelaPAN said quoting the Investigative Committee’s spokesperson Yuliya Hancharova.
11.08.2017 Komlik formally charged, Fiadynich still a suspect
Ihar Komlik, chief accountant of the REP trade union, has bene officially charged under Part 2 of Article 243 of the Criminal Code, “large-scale tax evasion.”
10.08.2017 Observatory condemns judicial harassment against trade union leaders in Belarus
The Observatory fears that REP and BITU leaders are being targeted in reprisal for their human rights activities and calls for the immediate release of Mr. Komlik, as well as ending all judicial harassment against REP and BITU leaders, in particular Messrs Komlik and Fiadynich, in so far as it appears to only aim at sanctioning their peaceful and legitimate human rights activities.
09.08.2017 International trade union leaders call to end persecution of Fiadynich and Komlik
Valter Sanches, General Secretary of the IndustriALL Global Union, and Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), have expressed deep concern and outrage at the recent searches in the offices of the Belarusian Independent Trade Union (BNP) and the Belarusian Trade Union of Radio Electronic Industry (REP) in a letter to President Lukashenka, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Prosecutor General of Belarus.
24.07.2017 The Many Faces Of Forced Labour In Belarus
According to the International Labour Organisation, violations of workers' rights in Belarus go beyond unpaid youth labour. The most notorious examples include forced labour of prisoners, soldiers, and inmates at labour therapy facilities, as well as occasional unpaid work on Saturdays and mandatory job placements for university graduates.
23.12.2016 Valiantsin Stefanovich: “Forced labor in Belarus is systemic and systematic”
Human rights activist Valiantsin Stefanovich has once again written to the Prosecutor's Office of Minsk region to complain about new instances of forced, when employees of several local government-owned enterprises were sent to clean the forest in Lahojsk district.
16.11.2015 Courts afraid to deal with discrimination cases
The Viciebsk Regional Court heard today a lawsuit dealing with employment discrimination. Earlier, the Court of Polack refused to recognize a fact of discrimination against a former employee of the Polack-Šklovalakno enterprise, Viktar Stukau, over his membership in an independent trade union.
07.10.2015 Brest: UCP activist to be dismissed from work after participation in electoral campaign
A member of the United Civil Party who had actively collected signatures for the nomination of the UCP Chairman Anatol Liabedzka as a candidate for presidency, has received a notice from the Brest Electromechanical Plant that her labor contract would not be extended.
