BCD activist to challenge dismissal in court
A librarian with 23 years of work experience was fired for
her activism. Sviatlana Hrytsenka, a mother of three children, activist
and speaker of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party (BCD) at the local
“election” in 2014, challenges her dismissal in court today.
She started her work as a librarian in September 1991, but
the centralised librarian network of the Babruisk region didn’t prolonged an
employment agreement with her in June. Hrytsenka, the 1 class librarian of the
children’s department of the central library, has never been subject to
disciplinary sanctions,charter97.orglearnt from the BCD press
service.
She received a notice on prolonging the agreement on April
25 and agreed to prolong it. On May 2, directorLiubou Skhabatold
the BCD speaker that she would not work from June 4 due to the expiration of
the employment agreement. Sviatlana Hrytsenka got fired being the chair of the
primary trade union organisation of librarians of the Babruisk district.
She explains the dismissal with her activism and
participation in the local election campaign. The activist recalls that she
resented when the director tried to force librarians on April 11 to buy outdated
lottery tickets of April 9. She didn’t agree to buy them and raised the problem
to the regional level that made the director angry.
Sviatlana Hrytsenka challenges her dismissal in the court of
Babruisk and the Babruisk district. She seeks the reinstatement at work, salary
for the enforced leave and compensation for the moral damage. According to her,
the dismissal affected her health and became stress for her children.
At the trail, the director accused the librarian of poor
performance, but failed to explain the absence of disciplinary sanctions.
Sviatlana Hrytsenka’s colleagues assess her work positively and representatives
of the regional committee of the trade union say the director didn’t contact
them to approve the dismissal of the trade union leader.Taisia Kabanchuk,
the coordinator of the BCD regional organising committee, was ordered to leave
the courtroom for recording the trial.
The verdict will be pronounced on August 7. The trial begins
at 16:00.
