Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: “A man from Minsk wrote to me the other day: 'At my factory, people are forced to take a long time off, unpaid leaves, and are laid off for the sake of “partial power and resource saving” due to lack of financing'.
You know, this story is not one of its kind. The situation is dire at most companies. After all, there are no independent trade unions in Belarus now, while the only thing the state-controlled ones do is distribute New Year’s Eve gifts and vacation packages. And at the same time, workers' rights are being violated. Companies force them to take unpaid time off to downsize without compensating employees. Enterprises throughout the country see inspections and mass layoffs almost every week.
On the other hand, "new jobs" are created. Factories, enterprises, schools, and universities are introducing positions of ideologists. All of them are busy checking the phones of workers and talking about how terrible the "collective West" is. After they tell on highly skilled specialists, they are fired although Belarus already lacks them.
The only caste not affected by mass layoffs are those who serve the regime and coerce loyalty. Law enforcement officers and propagandists are now a special type of "elite" whose rights and privileges are the priority. And they have the privilege of becoming ideologists after they retire early.
We all know this is not the environment we want to live and work in. We do not want this for our children and grandchildren. We want to live in a civilized country with adequate working conditions, paid overtime, and a salary enough not to live from paycheck to paycheck. A country where, after you retire, you can afford international travel instead of just surviving. And our desires are definitely not in line with the regime that works only for the benefit of its loyalists, not for the benefit of the entire people”.
