The Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC), where some employees have gone on strike, has published salary figures for its workforce.
According to the company's statement, in September 2024, ZCMC initiated a salary review process aimed at introducing institutional wage principles, eliminating social inequalities, and ensuring a transparent pay system based on industry standards and objective criteria.
“At ZCMC’s enrichment plant, flotation operators earn between 399,470-594,099 AMD, locksmiths between 329,918-580,003 AMD, and electro-gas welders between 359,856-609,491 AMD. Some employees receive salaries of up to 1,672,000 AMD.
In the ore grinding and transportation department, conveyor operators earn between 450,090-480,060 AMD per month, while electro-gas welders receive between 362,789-614,809 AMD,” the statement reads.
The company notes that heavy truck drivers are paid on a contract-based system.
Additionally, ZCMC states that all employees, including workers, and their family members (including parents) are provided with health insurance. Expenses not covered by insurance companies are financed by the company's charitable foundation.
The company also reimburses employees and their children for educational expenses.
“Considering all these factors, for the benefit of ZCMC CJSC and the majority of its employees, the company reserves the right to hold violators accountable within legal frameworks,” the statement concludes.
Meanwhile, ZCMC employees in Kajaran have launched a secret ballot in response to the management and union labeling the strike as "illegal actions," RFE/RL reports.
Ballot boxes have been placed in the city center and within the combine’s premises, allowing employees to vote anonymously on whether they support the strike’s demands.
Earlier, protest participants complained that Armenia’s largest taxpayer “fails to ensure workers' basic rights,” that the plant’s leadership drives luxury cars, while the working conditions remain substandard.
Kajaran Mayor Manvel Paramazyan and Edward Pahlevanyan, head of the Republican Union of Miners, Metallurgists, and Jewelers, met with the striking employees. Pahlevanyan stated that they are working to legally advance the workers’ demands so that no employees suffer consequences.
In 2021, the Russian Geopromining corporation became ZCMC's majority shareholder and donated 15% of the combine’s shares to the Armenian government. ZCMC is Armenia’s largest taxpayer in 2024.
