It’s been more than a year that Armenia’s synthetic rubber producing plant has been idle and a considerable number of its 3,000 workers have been on a forced vacation.

Nairit, which was founded in 1940, supplied the USSR’s internal market more than three dozen types of chemical products. But the plant was closed in 1989 under the pressure of environmental protests. It was partly re-launched in 1992 after Armenia gained independence.

In 2006, 90 percent of the plant’s shares were sold to the British-registered consortium Rainoville Property Limited for $40 million, while the Armenian government retained control over the remaining 10-percent stake.

Still in 2009, when visiting Nairit, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said that the huge industrial enterprise on the southern outskirts of Armenian capital Yerevan had great possibilities for development and in producing not only rubber but also a great variety of other products. If operated at its full capacity, the plant would also become a locomotive for economic growth as it would very quickly revive dozens of other enterprises, with thousands of new jobs created.

However, after a short period of operations at a fraction of its actual capacity, manufacturing at Nairit again grounded to a halt in April 2010, with the downtime continuing today.

In June this year Armenia’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources said that a German engineering company, Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz, had expressed interest in managing Nairit. Ministry spokeswoman Lusine Harutyunyan told ArmeniaNow that at this moment they expect a package of proposals from the German company also known as CAC.

As was earlier stated by Energy and Natural Resources Minister Armen Movsisyan, some $400-500 million will be required to upgrade Nairit to international standards, of which $145.8 million is needed to repay the chemical giant’s accumulated debts.

But while the government is making another attempt to revive the struggling plant, its employees continue to remain outside their jobs.

In June the chemical plant’s workers held a protest march towards President Serzh Sargsyan’s office in Yerevan, demanding the payment of their back wages and expressing their dissatisfaction with the idling of their enterprise.

One of the leading Nairit specialists told ArmeniaNow that as of today the plant has wage arrears towards its staff for several months.

“I’ve been on a forced vacation for already six months and only yesterday did I get my April salary. Now I have to look for another job,” he said.

Head of the Nairit press office Anush Harutyunyan confirmed to ArmeniaNow that nearly half of the plant’s 3,000 workers are on a forced vacation and as of today Nairit owes three months back pay.

“The Government helps in the matter of paying wages and no layoffs have been made at the plant during this downtime. The plant is in a good operational condition and if there is funding, then at any moment it is ready to resume its work,” said Harutyunyan.