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15 minutes Readers noted that although EU sanctions have been applied to the Belorus sanatorium in Lithuania, in Latvia the sanatorium in the Belarusian capital still operates under the same name.
Kai 15 minutes On Tuesday, he called the sanatorium “Belarus” in Jūrmala, Latvia, and the institution employee confirmed that the sanatorium is working, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it only accepts Latvian residents.
Ministry of Foreign Relations (MFA) 15 minutes reported that the EU Council regulations are binding and directly applicable in all member states.
“We were unable to comment on the actions of a neighboring country in applying restrictive EU measures,” the ministry said in a response.
Meanwhile, Chancellor Gabrielius Landsbergis explained to journalists on Tuesday that the sanatorium in Latvia belongs to 3 natural persons who are not subject to EU sanctions.
“There is a different legal situation, the sanatorium in Latvia belongs to three natural persons, none of whom is on the sanctions list. We reviewed both during this package and in previous ones; the situations are radically different,” the minister emphasized when He asked why no EU sanctions had been applied in Latvia.
Photo by Luke April / 15 minutes / Gabrielius Landsbergis
Documents submitted to the Latvian Registry Center show that the “Belarus” sanatorium belongs to three people: Aliaksandr Hruzdou, Helena Lebedeva and Natalia Sobolevskaya.
And in Lithuania, according to the Records Center, the Board of Presidential Affairs of Belarus, in relation to the Central Economic Board of the Presidential Administration of Belarus, is the sole shareholder of the Belarus sanatorium.
In response, Swedbank froze Belorus’s accounts in late December, causing problems for the institution to pay salaries to employees, most of whom are Lithuanian nationals. Following the application of the exemption by Lithuania, salaries were paid to employees.
“While opposition protests in Belarus and government actions against the opposition continue, EU sanctions are being imposed and a third package of sanctions has been introduced. Later they were applied by commercial banks and the same happened in Lithuania. ”Said G. Landsbergis.
He explained that the authorization process is implemented by private commercial banks, which can evaluate the links of one or another company with authorized legal or natural persons. It is true that he pointed out that this process can be appealed in the Lithuanian courts, but to the knowledge of the Minister this has not been done so far.
“I would like to remind you that the court has assessed that if the sanctions are applied incorrectly, it can apply provisional protection measures that would send a positive signal to those employees. It was not like that. The means of political pressure are used more, but today the state instruments They are limited, we did what we could, ”said the Minister.
Organized a protest
Employees of the “Belorus” sanatorium in Druskininkai organized a campaign on Tuesday to draw the attention of the public and the government to the fate of the employees working here after the EU sanctions were applied to the sanatorium.
“400 unemployed = 400 hungry families + 68 homeless”, “President, defend the Lithuanian people who elected you”, “Why is the Belarusian sanatorium destroyed? What’s next?” – with such posters the employees hung the fence from the sanitarium and lit candles.
Belorus employees call for a new examination of the sanctions applied in the EU and the payment of the so-called downtime during the pandemic and the emergency situation, as they are the only source of income for the Druskininkai employees who work in this institution .
“Our basic requirements for not making hasty decisions are to keep in mind that we are a medical institution, that our main objective is to care for children and that the only rescue plan is not severance pay and unemployment benefit until we find new jobs. We don’t need jobs, we have jobs. ” 15 minutes said Vladislav Šaruckis, president of the Labor Council of Belarus.
Mr. Landberg, for his part, assured that ways are currently being sought for the State to help the employees of the sanctioned companies, both in this case and in the future, if a similar situation arises.
“Not for companies, because there is a reason why they are sanctioned, but for employees,” Landsberg said.
According to him, the Ministry of Social Security and Labor has drawn up a bill that would provide people with additional assistance until they find another job or something changes.
The committee did not approve the payment of grants
According to BNS, on Tuesday the Seimas Labor and Social Affairs Commission once again rejected the “peasants” proposal to continue paying downtime allowances to “Belarusian” employees.
This is not the first time the committee has considered amendments to the payment of subsidies to Belorus employees. He also disapproved of them last week. However, he later agreed to receive special sanctions for them.
Payment of downtime allowances to Belarus was suspended after the EU imposed sanctions on the Central Economic Board of the President of Belarus, which owns the sanatorium. Therefore, amendments were submitted to the Seimas regarding other financial aid (sanctions for the application of sanctions) to its employees, most of whom are Lithuanian citizens.
Photo by Julius Kalinskas / 15min / Linas Kukuraitis
“At the very least, we want us not to be the first to punish our Belarusians, but our own people who work in that institution,” said former “peasant” Social Security Minister Linas Kukuraitis.
He regretted that the municipality of Druskininkai was not included in the discussions in principle, because “the social burden will fall on him.” Belarus employs almost 400 people, about 350 of them Lithuanians.
The amendments to the law, on which the Seimas will decide on Thursday, propose to legalize the sanctioning benefit, which would be paid to laid off employees if EU sanctions were applied to employers, as well as to prohibit support for sanctioned companies, which they would not receive job support apprenticeship contract, they would be deprived of allowances for downtime.
The payment of the fine would be 77.58%. the amount of the average salary of two employees, but not more than 2,890 euros, or the amount of two average salaries in the country.
Žygimantas Gedvila / 15min photo / concentration of the staff of the sanatorium “Bielorrusia”
For employees who have not worked for the company for 12 months, the benefit will reach their average income, but not more than 2,890 euros.
Said benefit would be paid out of the Long Term Employment Benefit Fund. The average salary in the country in the third quarter of 2020 amounted to 1,443 euros.
Such support would be paid to Belorus employees for up to one year. It would be received both at the initiative of the employer and by the people who left the sanatorium and terminating the employment contract by agreement of the parties.
The case of the Belarusian sanatorium is the first in the history of Lithuania, when international sanctions are applied to a company operating in the country.
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