YEREVAN. – The new Labor Code of Armenia will oversee employers to a lesser degree, and it will leave more matters to negotiations with employees. 

Arayik Petrosyan, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, told the aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am, commenting on the activities toward developing a new edition of the Labor Code. 

To the remark on possible skepticism toward such negotiations, Petrosyan responded: “It should be considered, under the conditions of 18 percent unemployment in Armenia. And does everything in life go by the law?”  

According to the official, this is why the Armenian government decided to leave some labor relations on arrangements. And in this case, as per Petrosyan, it is very important that the employees reach agreements together with trade union support, and not alone.

He added that the employees, and not the state, need to decide whether or not there should be trade unions, since the latter must be independent.