The leaders of the primary organization of the Belarusian Independent Trade Union (BNP) of the workers of the Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) "Grodno-Azot" had vainly believed that the officials guilty of violating union members' rights would be duly punished. The Grodno Regional Prosecutor's Office upheld the decision of its district counterpart and found nothing illegitimate in actions of the shops bosses who had threatened to dismiss union activists and deprive them of bonuses.

Let us remind you that in February 2010 four BNP members filed applications addressed to Sergey Antusevich, chairman of their primary union organization, with complaints against discrimination on the basis of their membership in the independent trade union. Their shop bosses forced them, under threats of deprivation of bonuses and dismissal addressed to them and their children, who also work at the "Grodno-Azot", to quit the BNP Trade Union. With these facts in hand, the BNP addressed the Prosecutor's Office of the Oktiabrskiy District of the city of Grodno.

The infringers of labour rights were just invited for an explanatory conversation. The district prosecutors found it unnecessary even to listen to the suffered workers or to the trade union leaders. Then, the BNP addressed the higher instance.

Sergey Antusevich told the website www.praca-by.info that initially the Regional Prosecutor's Office had treated the problem quite seriously. The activists' complaint was sent to a repeated consideration. The suffered workers were attentively listened to. However, the conclusions were the same: the facts of pressure on the workers, under the statement of the Prosecutor's Office, were not confirmed.

"Our check has shown that there are no objective data confirming the fact of rendering pressure on the members of the BNP with the aim to force them to quit their union. In this context, there are no grounds for any prosecutor's reaction to the facts indicated in your complaint," says the answer of the Prosecutor's Office received by the trade union.

"We are not going to give up and will go on struggling," said Sergey Antusevich. "We'll study the materials of the case together with the lawyer and decide what to do next. We believe that the Prosecutor's Office must punish those guilty."