A company associated with Avito tied the salary of employees in Armenia to the ruble exchange rate

The Kekh Armenia company tied the salaries paid in drams to employees to the exchange rate of the Russian ruble. This follows from the order of the company, a copy of which is at the disposal of Vedomosti. The document is dated August 2, 2023.

The order was signed by the director of “KEH Armenia” Denis Anisimov. Denis Anisimov’s LinkedIn profile (the site is blocked in Russia) states that he is also the company’s Deputy CFO “Avito“.

Representative “Avito” refused to comment on “no documents” and answer the question whether “KEX Armenia” is one of the legal entities of “Avito”, noting only that the company “has a legal entity and coworking in Armenia”.

By order, it was decided to change “the size and method of determining the basic salary of the company’s employees”: to apply the mechanism of its indexation, making it “depending on the exchange rate of the Armenian dram against the Russian ruble, operating in the foreign exchange market, published on the official website of the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia in one working day before the payment of basic wages.

After receiving the appropriate notice from the company, the employee is given time to sign a written consent to the new rules for paying salaries. With the same workers who do not give such consent, it is supposed to “terminate employment contracts.”

The company’s income “is formed in Russian rubles,” and without linking salaries in drams to the Russian ruble, “the company incurs significant losses,” the order says. They, according to preliminary calculations and forecasts, at the end of 2023 will amount to the equivalent of 1.6 billion rubles in Armenian drams, and at the end of 2024 – 2.25 billion rubles.

As a result of this step, the actual salaries of employees working in Armenia will decrease due to the difference in exchange rates, writes the industry portal CNews. In August 2022, 1 dram is worth 0.15 rubles, in August 2023 the exchange rate of the dram is 0.25 rubles.

“When making any decisions, we are guided by business logic and common sense,” a representative told Vedomosti.Avito“. – And if this business logic and common sense tell us that the company can be damaged due to current processes, then these processes need to be changed.”

The interlocutor emphasized that the company “did the maximum to ensure that people work territorially where they want”: “But at the same time they work in a Russian company, where 100% of the revenue, expenses, loans, interest and other costs are nominated in rubles” .

“In this regard, it is not possible for the company to take uncontrolled currency risk,” said a representative of “Avito“.

It was not possible to contact “Keh Armenia”.