12 February 2021
Dismissals affected 30 Azot employees. Most of them were fired after writing applications to join the strike on the 26th of October 2020. The dismissed Azot workers consider the dismissal unlawful, and demand to be re-employed. Thirteen former employees of “Hrodna Azot” LLC filed a collective claim with the court on the illegality of their dismissal.
The reasons for dismissal in the orders indicate absenteeism or violation of the company's internal regulations. Some workers were fired for violations of the Labor Code, and even for causing material damage. Many learned about the dismissal only by mail, from official letters, or at the checkpoint when the access pass was blocked. Some were on sick leave or had days off at the time of their dismissal.
Some of them were fired on weekends, being on vacations or during sick leaves.
Judge Siarhei Slashchou, who was handling the case before, advised the workers to clarify and supplement their requirements, and provide them in writing:
“The court is limited by the boundaries of the claimed requirements. For something to become a subject of consideration in court, you need to clarify the claim. If necessary, to split your claim into a number of applications ”.
On February 15, 2021, the judge was replaced without any explanation. Now the process of considering the claim of illegally dismissed workers is being conducted by D.A. Shanin. He rejected the previously approved applications of the workers on the grounds of some mistakes in the form of the application. One could notice that the previous judge was really trying to understand each particular case (the attitude was the same to the both sides of the process). The current judge in most cases "is playing along" the defendant's side, wrote the Telegram Channel Stachkom Azota.
On February 19 the decision of the court has been announced. The application has been rejected. The suit has been dissmissed. The decision of the judge D.A. Shanin was announced within three minutes.
