On the March 31 the Decree on limitation of business activities was published by the Commandant of State of Emergency of Armenia, where list of the sectors was provided, which may continue to operate. The trade unions were not in a list, despite political parties were included in “allowed” activity.
Because trade unions are association of workers, they can not stop operating and continue operate as usual, especially considering that during COVID-19 crisis labor relation issues are even more crucial.
On April 8 we have sent a request to the Commandant with suggestion to include trade unions in the permitted list of activities. Besides that, we have stressed the utter importance of social dialogue during crisis, mentioning particularly the ILO Recommendation “Decent Work for Peace and Resilience”.
The Commandant Office responded they will consider our suggestion in during coming update of the decision.
However, as of April 17 the issue is still not adresses, despite some updates were made to the above-mentioned Decree.