The administration of the Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) "Belaruskabel" has notified Vladimir Telepun, an activist of the Belarusian Radio and Electronic Workers' Union (REP) and the head of the Technical Division of the enterprise, that his employment (labour) contract will not be extended. The Trade Union is sure that dismissal of the highly-skilled worker is caused by his trade-union activities.

Vladimir Telepun, 54, has been working at the OJSC "Belaruskabel" for more than 30 years. He took part in liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident; he has three children. During the time of his work he had no reprimands from the administration.

Nevertheless, the employer is dismissing him.

"It's hard to say what claims the bosses may have to me. Director of the enterprise Gennady Ivanov has never had any remarks to the scope of work entrusted to me," Mr Telepun said to the website www.praca-by.info. "The enterprise now employs about 850 persons, my wife also works here. We have three children. Besides, I am a liquidator of the Chernobyl NPP accident. I think that the employer's decision has to do with my active civil position. I'm a member of the independent trade union, and I was a candidate for the local Soviet at the recent elections."

Leonid Sudalenko, legal REP Trade Union inspector for the Gomel Region, believes that, unfortunately, it will be hardly possible to defend the worker's rights in court.

"The Belarus legislator referred the expiry of a labour contract to a situation beyond the will of the parties," the trade-union lawyer explains. "It seems like in this case the initiative of the employer is allegedly absent. Nevertheless, we believe that the worker's rights have been broken, because we see an obvious discrimination. Although it is practically impossible to prove this fact at court."

In Leonid Sudalenko's opinion, the situation is aggravated by the fact that since January 2008 the legitimacy of short-term contracts was fixed in the Labour Code.

"In fact since then on in our country the provisions of the Presidential Edict on labour contracts got their development also in the main national labour document – the Labour Code," the trade-union lawyer has noticed. "Some time ago, in a similar situation I passed through all the possible stages of legal defence; however, I failed to defend by right to work, since the notorious Presidential Edict on labour contracts was all the time in my way.

According to the lawyer, the judiciary practice has no precedents, when a worker was restored at work after dismissal upon termination of his or her labour contract.

"The fixed-contract system, against which independent trade unions are struggling, has actually deprived workers of any protection against employer's arbitrariness and permissiveness," Leonid Sudalenko has summarized.