The International Labour Organization has called on the Belarusian authorities to return the passports of trade union leaders Aliaksandr Yarashuk and Hennadz Fiadynich and to restore their pension payments.
According to Radio Svaboda, the ILO governing body met in Geneva on March 30. The Administrative Council once again reviewed the situation regarding workers’ rights in Belarus. The council concluded that since its previous meeting in November last year, the situation had not changed and the Belarusian authorities had provided no new information on implementing ILO recommendations.
The meeting also addressed the cases of trade union leaders Aliaksandr Yarashuk and Hennadz Fiadynich. They were released last year, but their pensions have not been restored. In addition, Yarashuk was taken out of Belarus without his passport.
According to Yarashuk, the ILO received a response from Belarus stating that his passport was “somewhere unknown”, while his pension had been revoked for the “commission of a crime against the state”. The response was unsigned.
The ILO governing body included the issue in its final resolution.
“The council noted with the greatest concern the refusal of the Belarusian government to return the confiscated passports of Mr Yarashuk and Mr Fiadynich and to restore their pensions, and called on the government to do so without further delay”, Radio Svaboda quoted the resolution as saying.
Forty members of the council voted in favour of the resolution, two voted against and eight, including the Americans, abstained.