Belarusians Get “Chain Letters”

Potential “parasites” are asked to confirm employment.

Belarusians have started to receive letters asking them to confirm their employment. Such letters have already been received by Babruisk residents, Babruisk Courier reports. Those who do not confirm employment are threatened with a charge for hot water at the full rate.

The notifications state that lists of working and non-working citizens are being formed. It is emphasized that “the commission does not have information about your employment in the economy.”

The permanent city commission for the coordination of work to promote employment of the population in Babruisk explained tut.by that they send notifications only to those residents whose data are not in the database. Such citizens have to confirm that they work, otherwise they will be registered as the “parasites” and since January 1, the hot water supply for them will noticeably increase in price.

– We are sending out information that from January 1, 2019, citizens who are not engaged in the economy will pay for the hot water service at the full cost, – the commission inform. – These are not personal letters. The same information is written in the slips received by people.

We remind, that a database of people not engaged in the economy will be created by this year's December.

It was reported earlier that the authorities did not intend to send notification letters to those who got into the database.

– For these purposes, software is being developed that excludes the public placement of personal data. This will allow anyone to check whether he or she is among those not employed in the economy. We carefully consider the issues of protecting the confidentiality of information so that only the citizen himself can get access to it. We do not plan to send notification letters. State Institution Minsk City Housing will post reference information about the full cost of utility services on the utility bill payment receipt, – Zhanna Ramanovich, the Chairman of the Committee for Labor, Employment and Social Protection of the Minsk City Executive Committee told earlier.

Belarus has already formed a “pilot” database of able-bodied citizens who are not engaged in the economy.