No unemployment benefits in Armenia anymore

David Stepanyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

From January 1, 2014, according to the Law On Employment adopted by the Parliament in last December, no unemployment benefits will be paid in Armenia. Thanks to this brilliant idea, the government intended to stimulate the country’s unemployed to work for peanuts. As a matter of fact, the wages paid by the oligarchs from the government to service employees were so miserable that Armenians preferred receiving a compensation of, for instance, 25,000 drams to working 12 hours a day 7 days a week for 50,000 drams ($110). In this case they got deprived of the compensation and, despite the miserable wage, made to pay taxes, pension contribution and of course, the notorious 5% to receive pension themselves one day.            

That’s why the oligarchs from the government welcomed this initiative of the authorities. As paradoxical as it may seem, but in Armenia there is a real deficit of workers. There are vacancies for such jobs as workers, cashiers, sellers, waiters, security guards, maintenance staff, drivers, public service employees etc. And the owners of numerous banks, supermarkets and other “objects”  often complained that their possible employees are so “full of themselves” that they don’t want to work, preferring to receive the unemployment. According to Artem Asatryan, Minister of Labor and Social Issues, one of the priorities for 2014 will be the introduction of a new employment model, which will include implementation of about 10 programs. In particular, there will be employment provision for those who are competitive on the labor market. To put it more simple, all unemployed people, having been deprived of the unemployment benefits, will be forced to bow down to employers, most of whom are government officials and oligarchs, and work for 100-150 dollars a month. Meanwhile, just the cost of gas and electricity consumed in Yerevan in the unprecedentedly cold December, is almost twice higher. It is quite obvious why the government never wonders how people have to survive with such wages. The government turned out to care only about the interests of the few people who make millions and billions, depriving the vast majority of Armenia of crust.       

Another question is where actually go the super-profits of the oligarchs from the government. What are they used for? According to the recently published research of Global Financial Integrity, just over the last 6 years the outflow of capital from Armenia reached 6.2 billion dollars. It is clear that it couldn’t have been the employees who pumped the money abroad: they barely survive. The billions flowed out of Armenia with a helping hand from officials on the take and owners of oligopolies, which have been thriving to the disadvantage of the society, thanks to the government. This makes one wonder rightfully: what on earth are the reasons for the oligarchs to pump the capitals overseas, if they are so at ease in Armenia? The answer is obvious: none of the newly rich Armenian snobs doesn’t know today what awaits them tomorrow. Won’t the power that has created such conditions for them shift in one day?

Meanwhile, all those billions might have been invested in the stagnating Armenian economy, in production, in the development of small and medium enterprises. It would give a possibility to find a decent job not only for the unemployed who have been deprived of their miserable benefits, but also to hundreds of thousands of Armenian citizens who are forced to search for jobs abroad. However the authorities continue with their ostrich policy, hiding their heads in a bush and preferring not to see the obvious things. As a result, while Armenia has a 4-billion external debt and keeps reaching out for new credits to postpone the default, the billions robbed by the government oligarchs  are being smuggled out of country, and the unemployed get deprived of their miserable benefits. That’s the paradox of the Armenian reality.