Wage Arrears Stand at $820M: Zurabov
themoscowtimes.com
By Oksana Yablokova
Staff Writer Workers are owed 24 billion rubles ($820 million) in unpaid salaries, mostly from employers in the private sector, and the total debt is a significant drop from the more than $1 billion of just two years ago, Health and Social Development Minister Mikhail Zurabov said Wednesday.
Most of the back pay is owed in the machine-building and metals industries, which owe 4.2 billion rubles, and the coal industry, which owes 801 million rubles, Zurabov told the State Duma, where he was summoned to report on overdue wages.
Zurabov, who cited figures from May, said the government owes workers 666 million rubles.
The total debt is the equivalent of about 7.4 percent of all monthly salaries, he said.
But 24 billion rubles in back pay is a drastic improvement on the 30 billion to 35 billion rubles owed as recently as two years ago, Zurabov said.
The figures are similar to those collected by the Federation of Independent Unions, said the head of its social and labor relations department, Oleg Sokolov.
The Duma put the issue on its agenda last month, when more than 170 Khakasian miners went on a hunger strike over 6.5 million rubles of unpaid wages.
The strike received wide publicity on television, and deputies asked for a report on the incident to be compiled by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, who in turn delegated the task to Zurabov.
Meanwhile, the former director of the Khakasian mine, which is privately owned, told a court Wednesday that he ordered his accountants to stop handing out salaries in October, Interfax reported.
Prosecutors demanded that the former director, Ten En Tak, be fined 50,000 rubles.
Upon hearing of the small amount of the proposed fine, some 80 miners attending the hearing walked out in protest, Interfax said.
The strike ended a few days ago when the regional government stepped in and paid off the miners via a loan.
Miners in at least one other region are on the verge of going on a hunger strike, said Alexander Sergeyev, chairman of the Independent Union of Miners.
More than 2,000 miners were laid off in Inta, in the Komi republic, when two mines closed last month, but they have not yet received their compensation packages, he said.
In addition, "we will be dealing with a new kind of protest in the fall -- miners will be protesting against low wages," Sergeyev said. A miner's average monthly salary amounts to 8,500 rubles ($300), he said. |
