The second session of the Luninets District Court of the Brest Region on the lawsuit lodged by Nikolai Karyshev, Deputy Chairman of the primary BNP (Belarusian Independent Trade Union) trade union organization, against the administration of the Republic's Unitary Production Enterprise (RUPE) on illegal termination and recognition of his labour contract null and void took place on June 29. The session was accompanied by a verbal skirmish and removal from the courtroom.

Let us remind you that "Granit" bosses had refused to renew the labour contract with Nikolai Karyshev, who worked at the railway loading shop. Nikolai and his colleagues are sure that the reason was in the worker's trade union activities.

As reported by the website of the BNP, the court session lasted for about two hours. The claimant in writing challenged the judge Vasily Belsky and demanded to remove him. The point is that this particular judge had earlier considered a similar case on restoration at work of Oleg Stakhaevich, the leader of the primary organization, and ruled in favour of the administration of the enterprise. In both cases, in the opinion of the claimant, there was a pretext – the trade union membership of the dismissed workers.

"After I started reading out my statement demanding removal of the judge, the judge Belsky began interrupting me," Nikolai told the BNP website. "The trade union lawyer Vladimir Malei, who was in the courtroom, made a remark to the judge, asking him to stop interrupting me. In response, the judge removed the lawyer out of the courtroom.

The claimant's motion on challenging the judge was rejected.

In the course of the trial, two motions were added to the case files. In the first one Nikolai asked to recognize one of the provisions of his labour contract. Despite the protest of the prosecutor, who said that the motion was a subject of another consideration, the court ruled to add the motion to the case materials. According to the second motion, the above Vladimir Malei was attracted as the claimant's representative and could return into the courtroom.

In connection with the new added claims, the court reappointed the consideration for July 17.

Nikolai Karyshev said that the situation at the enterprise is no better. The "Granit" workers who had joined the BNP are just preparing for their upcoming dismissal.

"According to the workers, who filed applications asking to transfer their union membership fees from their salaries to the BNP, they have been told to get ready for dismissal. When one of the workers met the Director General, the latter said that he did not care in what trade union the workers were members," said Nikolai Karyshev and added that "there would be no new trade union at the enterprise."

Despite a number of legal proceedings on restoration at work of the local BNP activists and the public resonance, the situation at the enterprise has not changed. Until today, the following five trade union activists have been dismissed from the RUPE "Granit": Oleg Stakhaevich, Lyudmila Litvinko, Gennady Pavlovskiy, Nikolai Karyshev and Vitaly Pashechko.