Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

On June 11 2021, an event took place in Yerevan officially launching three new EU-supported projects on enhancing labour rights protection in Armenia.

Three consortia, bringing 14 civil society organisations, employers’ and trade unions as well as media structures from Yerevan and marzes into close collaboration, are implementing the projects.

The new projects are the following:

“Labour Action: Collaborative Effort for Accountable and Inclusive Employment’’ project is implemented by Union of Employers of ICT, Armavir Development Center and Kiraki Development Foundation. The Project aims at enhancing capacity of public administration and civil society organisations to strengthen and expand protection of labor rights and building strategic institutional capacity within the Government towards social protection and labor reforms.

“Decent work now!” project is implemented by Helsinki Citizens' Assembly – Vanadzor, Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center, Advanced Public Research Group, Factor Information Center NGO in cooperation with Education and Solidarity Union.  The Project aims to enhance the individual, collective, and state mechanisms of labour and social rights protection and their application in Armenia through empowerment of employees and labour unions and advocacy for legislative framework reform.

“EU4LabourRights: Increasing Civic Voice and Action for Labour Rights and Social Protection in Armenia” project is implemented by OxYGen Foundation, Socioscope NGO, “Asparez” Journalists’ Club NGO, Armenian Progressive Youth NGO, Media Diversity Institute - Armenia in cooperation with Protection of Rights without Borders NGO, and Eurasia Partnership Foundation. The Project will facilitate a multi-stakeholder policy Platform - CVA which will lead national consultations on the development and implementation of relevant public policies aimed at addressing the discrimination and violation of labour rights, with the involvement of grassroots organisations and activists’ nonformal groups.

The projects initiated activities at the beginning of 2021 and aim to improve labour and social rights protection in Armenia through innovative, IT solutions in labour rights control, public awareness raising on labour rights especially among youth, women, and people with disabilities. Also, they intend to promote a more continuous participatory dialogue among key stakeholders.

Ruben Sargsyan, MLSA Deputy Minister, Hakob Avagyan, Head of the Healthcare and Labour Inspectorate, and Gonzalo Serrano De La Rosa, Head of the Co-operation Section, European Union Delegation to Armenia participated in the event.

“I am impressed when looking to the agenda of the event and seeing so many logos. I think this is a great added value also from the EU side that we can provide, bringing together many partners, different specialisations, different views, opinions, so we are getting together to ensure important, positive tangible change and not only in the labour rights” – Mr. Serrano said.

In his speech, Mr. Sargsyan signified the EU support to protection of labour rights and the improvement of the socio-economic situation in Armenia. He put a special highlight to application of IT system in the Healthcare and Labor Inspectorate for the protection of labour rights. He also emphasized the importance of awareness raising campaigns especially among vulnerable groups of society.

Mr. Avagyan mentioned that the Health Care and Labour Inspectorate have already started cooperation with the project partners, highlighting especially the importance of the upgrading of the inspectorate body, particularly, the digitalization of the labor rights protection mechanism through an online platform.

During the meeting, a MOU between the Healthcare and Labour Inspectorate and the Project Partners thus announcing and laying a ground for continuous cooperation on the labour rights protection in Armenia.