Independent Trade Union Helps Worker to Return His Money

The trade union of radio-electronic industry (REI) managed to get the court abolish a disciplinary punishment to its activist, driver of Brestenerhazberazhenne enterprise Mikhail Zychkou, and return to him the wage he had been deprived of as a result. It happened thanks to the insistence and professionalism of the trade-union’s specialists. They had not only to prove the unlawfulness of the administration’s actions, but also fight with the judicial illiteracy of the judge of Maskouski district court of Brest Mrs. Levanchuk.

During the procedure of employment Mikhail Zhychkou was familiarized with the duty instruction concerning the limit of the car mileage. When the employer found that the driver exceeded the mileage limits, he rebuked Zhychkou and exacted from his wage the cost of 50 liters of petroleum.

Mr. Zhychkou applied to his trade union, REI, for support. The trade union decided that his interests in court would be represented by the legal inspector Uladzimir Malei. However, the judge prohibited him to take part in the trial because the trade union allegedly had no state registration. Thus, the worker was deprived of the constitutional right to defense.

The head of the legal service of REI Alena Yaskova called this decision of the judge ‘really incompetent from the judicial point of view’. ‘The court was presented a pack of documents, including the registration certificate of the trade union, its charter, the decision of the trade union to charge Malei with defense of the trade union member and Zhychkou’s written agreement to it. That’s why we considered the judge’s actions as completely illegal and appealed against them,’ A.Yaskova commented.

The trade union applied to the chair of the justice department of Brest oblast executive committee and to the chair of Brest oblast court and demanded that a check-up on this fact were conducted and the appropriate measures were taken.

By the second court sitting judge Levanchuk finally managed to discriminate in the rules of registration and re-registration of public organizations. When Zhychkou repeated his solicitation for Malei’s presence at the trial, she satisfied it.

After long debates the court had to find the actions of Brestenerhazberazhenne lawless. The director of the enterprise had to abolish the rebuke and return the money to Mikhail Zhychkou.