You know the rule of waiting 24 hours before posting something on the Internet, so if you happen to be posting a knee-jerk reaction, you wont regret it later? Well I have very rarely followed that rule and well, here we go again.
Tonight I went to dinner at my contactors house. As I have mentioned before, he is doing construction at the wine factory in Martuni and I�m also providing building materials for them.
When I sent him off to work there and put my construction on hold, I was okay with it only because they told me they would be paying him well and the end result would be the creation of a number of new jobs.
Well tonight he reported to me that after a month of working there, the factory is already trying to cheat him and the other workers out of money they were to receive.
The agreement was that the lowest paid laborer was to receive 2,000 dram a day, which come to be 50,000 dram a month. Skilled labor was to no less than 5,000 dram a day, which comes out to 125,000 a month. Many of the jobs were to be done on a per meter basis and for my contractor, who has the nickname of Tompatess (meaning Jack Rabbit) he was to have an opportunity to make well over the 5,000 dram a day estimate. Unfortunately, when all was said and done and measurements were taken to calculate what was to be paid, the lowest paid labor is going to get around 1,500 dram a day and the skilled labor a little more than 3,000 dram a day. I wont get into the details of how the wine factory did their calculations, but all I can say right now is that they were not fair at all in the way they did it and in fact it can be proven that they defrauded the workers if need be.
As for the people who are providing building materials, the factory is not making good on the verbal deal they has with us. For me, I was promised that the materials I would be providing would in a short period of time, well exceed the additional investment I made on my equipment to bring them in a working order so I could fulfill my commitment. I have spent $1,200 for tires and other things that I would need so I could fulfill my end of the deal, but to date, I have seen no more than $500 in work and $300 of that money due is already pass due. I have had to already go to the factory 4 times to make them understand that we have a verbal deal and we will continue to provide materials for them until they can give me a good reason why my materials are not up to the standards they have required and not that they have a close friend that will bring everything (which was the last unspoken reason).
I�m certainly not happy with my short end of the stick, but even more so with the short end that the locals are getting. I even fear that when the factory is up and running, we are going to see what Armenia has seen with the wine and tomato factories that promises the farmers that they will take their crop at a given price, but when it comes time for them to receive it, they have excuses to not make good on their deal and then end up stealing it from the farmer by doing them a �favor� and taking the crop at a price that is below the fair market value and a loss for the farmer, who then becomes discontent and disappointed with life in general (I�ve documented this too many times in Armenia). This is not something we need here and I certainly intend to do something about it before it becomes a problem.
Tonight I went to dinner at my contactors house. As I have mentioned before, he is doing construction at the wine factory in Martuni and I�m also providing building materials for them.
When I sent him off to work there and put my construction on hold, I was okay with it only because they told me they would be paying him well and the end result would be the creation of a number of new jobs.
Well tonight he reported to me that after a month of working there, the factory is already trying to cheat him and the other workers out of money they were to receive.
The agreement was that the lowest paid laborer was to receive 2,000 dram a day, which come to be 50,000 dram a month. Skilled labor was to no less than 5,000 dram a day, which comes out to 125,000 a month. Many of the jobs were to be done on a per meter basis and for my contractor, who has the nickname of Tompatess (meaning Jack Rabbit) he was to have an opportunity to make well over the 5,000 dram a day estimate. Unfortunately, when all was said and done and measurements were taken to calculate what was to be paid, the lowest paid labor is going to get around 1,500 dram a day and the skilled labor a little more than 3,000 dram a day. I wont get into the details of how the wine factory did their calculations, but all I can say right now is that they were not fair at all in the way they did it and in fact it can be proven that they defrauded the workers if need be.
As for the people who are providing building materials, the factory is not making good on the verbal deal they has with us. For me, I was promised that the materials I would be providing would in a short period of time, well exceed the additional investment I made on my equipment to bring them in a working order so I could fulfill my commitment. I have spent $1,200 for tires and other things that I would need so I could fulfill my end of the deal, but to date, I have seen no more than $500 in work and $300 of that money due is already pass due. I have had to already go to the factory 4 times to make them understand that we have a verbal deal and we will continue to provide materials for them until they can give me a good reason why my materials are not up to the standards they have required and not that they have a close friend that will bring everything (which was the last unspoken reason).
I�m certainly not happy with my short end of the stick, but even more so with the short end that the locals are getting. I even fear that when the factory is up and running, we are going to see what Armenia has seen with the wine and tomato factories that promises the farmers that they will take their crop at a given price, but when it comes time for them to receive it, they have excuses to not make good on their deal and then end up stealing it from the farmer by doing them a �favor� and taking the crop at a price that is below the fair market value and a loss for the farmer, who then becomes discontent and disappointed with life in general (I�ve documented this too many times in Armenia). This is not something we need here and I certainly intend to do something about it before it becomes a problem.
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