Employment and Dismissal in Armenia

An employment contract is an agreement between the employee and the employer that specifies the rights and obligations of each party.

According to the Labor Code of Armenia, employment contracts must contain the following information:

• the date, month, year, and place of signing the contract,
• the employees name (including their patronymic if they wish),
• the employing company’s name or the name of the employing individual,
• the company’s structural subdivision, if available,
• the date, month, year of starting the employment,
• the position name and/or the work responsibilities,
• basic salary and the way it is calculated,
• the supplements, allowances, subsidies paid to the employees,
• the employment contract duration period (if necessary),
• the duration of the probation period (at the agreement of both parties),
• work hours in case of part-time work regime.

The minimum net salary in Armenia is 55,000 AMD, which means the minimum gross salary should be around 78,000 AMD to include taxes and social payments.

The employment contract can be terminated for various reasons:

•  by mutual agreement,
• at the employee’s initiative,
• at the employer’s initiative,
• in case of employee’s conscription,
• in case of the death of the employee,
• if the employee is unable to continue carrying out their responsibilities because of a court ruling (e.g. being disallowed to engage in certain kinds of professional activities),
• other reasons defined by the law.

The employee has a right to terminate the employment contract in following cases:

1. company liquidation (or a termination of an Individual Entrepreneur),
2. bankruptcy of the employer,
3. redundancy (change of production volumes, economic, technical or work organization conditions that result in necessity of reduction of the staff),
4. the employee does not meet the necessary qualifications for the position they hold,
5. the employee is being reinstated to a former (previous) work position,
6. the employee regularly fails to perform their responsibilities as defined in the employment contract or does not comply with the internal code of conduct,
7. loss of trust and confidence in employee,
8. long-term incapacity on the grounds of ill health or injury (the employee’s absence has lasted more than 120 days in a row or more than 140 days during the last 12 months),
9. if the employee is under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or psychotropic substances at the workplace,
10. the employee misses a whole shift (workday) without good reason,
11. refusal or evasion of attending a mandatory medical examination,
12. the employee reaches retirement age (unless otherwise stipulated in the employment contract).

For employment contract termination reasons covered in points 1 – 3, the employer must notify the employee in writing no later than two months, for the rest of the reasons, no later than to weeks prior to dismissal.