On July 7 the Chamber for Civil and Commercial Cases of the RA Court of Cassation left the decision of the second jurisdiction on the suit of Vanadzor (Lori region) public information organization “Media Group” versus the State Social Security Fund unchanged.
As it has been reported, the litigation between the parties started in as far back as 2003 when “Media Group” with the assistance of “World Learning” international organization was implementing a project “Strengthening of Relations between the Organizations and the Community of Vanadzor”. The representatives of State Social Security Fund, after an audit, recognized the “Media Group” volunteers to be paid employees and in this regard demanded the organizations to make appropriate social security payments and pay a fine. The last court ruling of June 3, 2004 obliged “Media Group” to cover the debt to the State Social Security Fund, but with no fine payments (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, June 4-10, 2004).
According to the representative of “Media Group” Edmon Marukian, now, according to the Armenian legislation, the ruling execution is to start against the NGO, its property will be arrested to be later sold from an auction. As Marukian said, the organization does not have any funds to cover the liabilities to the State Social Security Fund. This is an amount of about 500,000 drams (about $ 1,000), including the execution costs. However, “Media Group” will continue to protect its rights and intends to address the European Court of Human Rights.
On July 7 the employees of Vanadzor organization held a protest action before the building State Social Security Fund in Yerevan.
