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“The Foreign Ministry tends to offer to go that way, to take over the sanatorium in the hands of Lithuania, because it is a kind of anomaly in international relations when Belarus has properties on the territory of Lithuania,” said M. Adomėnas. in the Social Affairs and Labor Commission of the Seimas.
“Such a solution can be proposed. But this requires Belarus to be willing to talk about it,” the deputy minister said.
According to him, Belarus can also easily resolve the issue of sanctions if it transfers its subordination to another body, such as the Ministry of Health, so that sanatoriums do not control people on the European Union sanctions list.
“The Belarusian side can resolve that situation very easily, and they know this very well by transferring the sanatorium to another subordinate, to take administrative measures so that the authorized person does not have direct control over the sanatorium. Their reluctance to address it is simply an attempt to use the sanatorium as a hostage, “the deputy minister told parliamentarians.
According to the Records Center, the Belarusian sanatorium belongs to the Board of Presidential Affairs of Belarus. It is headed by Viktor Šeiman, who is on the EU sanctions list.
Swedbank froze the sanitarium accounts in December.
After freezing the sanitarium’s bank accounts, the Seimas passed a law establishing one-time payments to sanitarium employees.
According to the Deputy Minister of Social Security and Labor, Vytautas Šilinskas, so far five people have left the sanatorium.
“As of today, five people have left: one in January, four in March. All have received benefits (…) As far as I know, the couple has already been offered a job, but they are still looking to see if they want to work or have the opportunity to leave, the couple is in early retirement, age and considering returning to the labor market, “said the deputy minister.
The “Belarus” sanatorium employs about 390 people: 350 Lithuanian citizens, the rest are Belarusians.
Sodra: one of the options is to file for bankruptcy
Ježy Miskis, deputy director of Sodra, reported that the sanatorium has not been paying social security contributions for its employees for more than three months in a row.
In view of this, it can be decided to classify the sanatorium as a non-operating company. According to J. Miskis, this is done so that the salary is not calculated without paying the “Sodra” contributions.
If the sanatorium were classified as a non-operating company, its employees would lose their social guarantees for the months in which the sanatorium did not pay Sodra contributions, that is, they would be considered uninsured during that period.
Such a procedure would apply to the sanatorium, since the sanatorium is not included in the list of companies most affected by the coronavirus by the State Tax Inspection, while the payment of contributions to companies located in it is deferred, but no more than five years.
However, J. Miskis also announced that after the internal meeting of the Sodra management, it was decided not to apply this sanction to the sanatorium for the time being.
“From Sodra, there will probably still be no consequences for employees,” he said.
“Assessing whether or not a company is operating is probably not possible now due to the fact that there is quarantine and the company cannot operate,” added J. Miskis.
However, he emphasized that the situation regarding the sanatorium remains uncertain.
“Employees are paid, Sodra’s contributions are not paid, so it is not logical to further increase indebtedness to Sodra and assume obligations to the state,” he told Seimas members on the committee.
Among other things, J. Miskis does not hide that one of the decisions regarding the situation in the sanatorium is to file a bankruptcy case against him.
M. Adomėnas stated that on March 17, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the decision to allow the employer to pay wages for January 2021. The bank was informed about this.
“I cannot say why the bank did not make the transfer,” said the deputy minister.
According to M. Adomėnas, he was allowed to pay 244 thousand. EUR – salaries, state taxes (Sodra and contributions to the income tax of natural persons) and to cover the costs of public services.
According to him, the decision was not made earlier, because the sanatorium of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had not provided detailed information on specific payments and the funds required for them.
Mr. Adomėnas announced that a decision will soon be made on the thawing of funds for the payment of February wages.
Chancellor Gabrielius Landsbergis has stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has asked the European Commission (EC) to assess whether the sanctions have been correctly applied to the sanatorium, and according to the informal information received, there is no reason to doubt the application of these measures.
M. Adomėnas says that the EC has not yet given a formal response to Lithuania: “What they have given is an informal opinion that cannot be trusted.”
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