Dissidents fired: Short-term contract system is trap in Belarus


 

The administration of the Belarusian State Agrarian Technical University (BSATU) has not extended a work contract with Dr. Hab. Mikhail Kadyrau, 65.

“I cannot file any official complaint. A [short-term] contract expires every year, mine expired and they refused to renew it. Although, 70 year-old and even 80-year-old doctors do work at the university,” Mr Kadyrau told Belsat TV.

Fired for blasting authorities in social media?

Professor Kadyrov is well-known not only for his professional activity, but for his social activism as well. He openly views his opinions in social media and publishes critical articles about actual problems of the Belarusian economy.

“Reporting about a ‘growth’ in crop and milk production has become the most important thing [for agricultural managers]. And as a manager is not a master, but a temporary person, they often fake the results. This has become the cancerous growth that has spread in the republic’s agriculture,” he says.

No exception

Venturous opinions have ipso facto made the Professor a victim of the contract system. Dozens of workers, employees and the whole cohort of well-known lecturers teachers – Vyachaslau Shved, Andrey Charnyakevich , Ina Sorkina, Natallia Ilyinich – are among those fired for criticising the regime.

Independent trade unions have been fighting against the contract system for decades. It grants a citizen the right to work, but deprives them of all the other rights, including the right to respectable wage and working conditions. In Belarus, the short-term contract system which is common in the world is the opportunity to punish dissidents. Due to it, moreover, Belarusian workers always remember that they could be booted at any moment.

Tatsyana Ulasenka, Belsat, phot. by deniskazansky.com.ua

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