On July 26 representatives of staffs of CJSC "South Caucasus Railway" held a general conference and approved the draft of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement of the organization. The conference was attended by the CEO of CJSC "SCR" Victor Rebets, the Secretary General of the International Confederation of Tade Unions of Railway Workers and Transport Construction Gennady Kosolapov, the Chairman of Dorprofsozh Ashot Khlkhatyan, the Chairman of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Armenia Edward Tumasyan and more than 80 union members, representing different structural units of the railway. As noted the CEO of SCR Viktor Rebets at the conference, the regulation of social-labor relations is one of the most important issues in the work of the Company which the number of employees exceeds four thousand. As the head of SCR stressed, since the beginning of its work in Armenia in 2008, the Company had managed to achieve quite substantial performance. According to his data, since 2008 in the framework of modernization of the infrastructure 162.6 thousand km of track had been repaired, about 260 thousand wooden sleepers had been replaced, 70 switches repaired, 49 crossing, 24 bridges, 60 km of catenary and 5 traction substations had been repaired. Due to the head of SCR, special equipment was purchased to increase efficiency for the track diagnosis and improve safety on the railway. "The total amount of funding the investment program for the period 2008 to 2011 exceeded 73 billion drams, more than 45.6 billion drams of which has been directed to the infrastructure, and 27.3 billion drams to the rolling stock", - said Victor Rebets. At the same time the CEO drew attention to the constant increase in social costs of the employee by the Company, amounting to 4.6 billion drams from 2008 to June 1, 2012. In this case, benefits package per employee in 2008 amounted to 11.3 thousand drams per month, and by June 1, 2012 it has already reached 27.9 thousand drams, having increased by 4 times. "The social cost is nor a wasting to us, it is a social investment, the most important tool to improve the performance of the company ", - said the CEO. The Secretary General of the International Confederation of the Trade Unions of Railway Workers and Transport Construction Gennady Kosolapov welcomed the conference participants on behalf of the railroad workers of the CIS countries, noting that such an event proved the existence of high-level dialogue and interaction between the employees and employers of the railway of Armenia. At the conference the delegates approved the draft of the new Collective Agreement, which will be submitted for signature after the final revision. The participants also welcomed the employees’ decision to transfer daily salary to the fund of aid for flood victims in Krymsk. In turn, the Company's CEO added that the collected amount would be supplemented by own revenues of the Company and at the end of the month it would be listed in the aid fund. V.Rebets highly appreciated the Company's employees’ initiative, stressing that the decision indicated the high civil position of the Armenian railway staff.

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