27 May 2004 15:13
Deal said reached on sale of Russian hunger-strike mine to cover arrears
Moscow, 27 May: A multilateral accord was reached in Moscow today on the sale of the Yeniseyskaya mine in Khakassia
and the payments of the wage arrears to the hunger-striking miners starting in the next few days.
The head of the State Duma's labour and social policy committee, Andrey Isayev, told reporters that a protocol
signed today outlines measures and sets a timetable for the problem of the miners' wage arrears to be resolved.
The protocol was signed by heads of the Federal Energy Agency, the Federal Labour and Employment Service, the Russian
trade union of coal industry workers, the chairman of the State Duma committee on labour and social policy, trade union
representatives from the mine and its current owners.
"We agreed that the owners will, by 10 June, complete negotiations and sell the mine, then by 20 June the funds
received through the sale will be used to clear the workers' wage arrears in full," Isayev said.
According to Isayev, there are in fact two prospective purchasers for the mine. Isayev added that talks are now under
way between them and the Federal Energy Agency, which will act as guarantor of the agreement.
The committee chairman added that he was, unfortunately, unable to name these purchasers, since negotiations are
still in progress.
Isayev said that agreement has been reached with the government of the Republic of Khakassia, which is trying find
ways of paying off the wage arrears earlier "through using a loan from the budget or through credits".
"The government of the Republic of Khakassia has promised to find ways of paying off a proportion of the arrears
today, with the investor paying them back later," Isayev said, noting that the head of the Khakassia government,
Aleksey Lebed, had talks on this with State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov today. According to the deputy, Gryzlov received
assurances from Lebed on this.
The committee chairman also said that the parties to the protocol have appealed to the hunger-strikers from Khakassia
to stop their action.
For his part, workers' spokesman Aleksandr Atyukov, chairman of the trade union committee at the Yeniseyugol
[Yenisey Coal] company, told reporters that he was satisfied with today's decisions. "This document, which I
am taking home to Khakassia with me, will stop people continuing with the hunger strike and will, perhaps, push the
Khakassia government to find the money to start paying the arrears without delay," he said.
Isayev said that the Duma committee would monitor the execution of this protocol day by day. On 24 June the committee
will hold another special meeting to analyse the implementation of today's decisions.
[Interfax news agency] |
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