Zinaida Mikhniuk: "Deputies" Are Afraid To Go Against Customer Of "Parasite" Decree

The authorities are trying to "put a brave face on a sorry business".

The so-called "house of representatives" does not see any grounds for appeal to the Constitutional Court regarding the constitutionality of Decree No. 3, and the "council of the republic" did not even consider it objectively, praca-by.info reports.

"In view of the absence of disputable cases related to the classification of citizens as "employed"/ "not employed" in the practice, in our opinion, the introducing into the legislation the definition of the term "not employed citizens" seems to be superfluous <...> we believe that there are no grounds for appeal to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus with the purpose of recognizing paragraph 5 of the Decree № 3 as non-compliant with the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus," - the Chairman of the Commission on Labor and Social Affairs of the "house of representatives," T. Krasouskaya, writes.

This is how the "deputy" replied to the appeal of the REP trade union concerning the consideration of Decree No. 3 on its compliance with the Constitution.

"The Constitution of the Republic of Belarus does not provide for such a legal concept as "able-bodied citizens who are not employed in the economy", therefore, paragraph 5 of the temporary decree № 3 on payment for such a category of citizens of the consumed housing and communal services at specially set tariffs is not based on the norms of the Basic Law of our country", - the REP trade union pointed out.

The "council of the republic" went to even greater lengths and did not even consider the appeal as such. The initiative appeal is not supported by "a copy of the state body's decision or a copy of the ruling of the general jurisdiction court, where a normative legal act, the constitutionality of which is doubtful, is applied", - the chairman of the Commission on Education, Science, Culture and Social Development, V. Siarenka, answered.

So far, the Council of Ministers and the Supreme Court, to which the REP trade union has sent similar appeals, have not answered.

"The "deputies" are afraid to go against the customer of the decree, so they are putting a brave face on a sorry business," - the acting head of the REP trade union, Zinaida Mikhniuk, says:

- The decree was adopted on a rush basis, without broad public discussion. The International Labour Organization has stated that the decree contains elements of forced labour and the decree itself humiliates human dignity. The house of representatives, instead of exercising its right to initiate consideration of the decree on constitutionality, gives us another formal reply, thus demonstrating its own powerlessness.

At the same time, the trade union leader says, the authorities do not even comply with the decree:

- No new jobs are being created in the country, allowing the "not employed in the economy" citizens to earn even the minimum wage. We, as a public association, have used our right and applied to the state authorities. Yet we are not going to stop there.