‘Nearly all the workers employed at Lobvisnkiy biochemical plant are going to get fired on July 16, 2008, reports the plant’s trade union chairman Andrei Abuzyarov.

‘The decision to fire the workers was taken by the company’s old and new proprietors. Some five hundred people are to lose their jobs altogether,’ he notes.

The redundancies are probably related to the plant’s full stoppage and closing down. In fact, the enterprise was proverbial for violating the workers’ constitutional rights, with arrears of wages coming to more than 19 million RUR on April 18, 2008. The employees also claim their employer never compensated them for the back payments despite the existing Labor Code regulations. The plant’s trade union also reports some people were working at the plant without a proper employment contract.

Nineteen workers went on a hunger strike on April 28, 2008 and kept striking until a portion of wages was paid.

Andrei Abuzyarov says Lobvisnkiy biochemical plant might resume working in October 2008.

The enterprise belongs to Mars Sharafullin, a Yekaterinburg-based entrepreneur, at the moment.