08 June 2004 04:36
Yakovlev Tells Rostov to Pay Striking Miners
Vladimir Yakovlev, the presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, ordered the Rostov region on Monday to
pay 500,000 rubles ($17,000) to a group of coal miners after two were hospitalized in a weeklong hunger strike.
Some 40 miners are on strike in Shakhty over a year's worth of wage arrears and a plan to fire them.
Yakovlev said the Rostov region must come up with the money from its budget to make good on part of the 16 million
rubles owed as of June 1. He said the rest of the arrears will be paid through the sale of mine property.
Two miners at the Rosugol mine were hospitalized over the weekend with health problems arising from the strike, one
of the striking miners, Anatoly Zhirov, said by telephone Monday.
He said 25 miners and 15 workers at a mining equipment plant connected to the mine remain determined to go without
food until their salaries are paid. He said arrears go back as far as 18 months.
Zhirov said the strikers are also protesting a recent decision by Rosugol to fire them on June 20 without any
compensation. "It turns out that not only have we not been paid for months, but we are also facing no future
employment and, most likely, no pensions," he said.
Acting mine director Gennady Zheglov said Rosugol, which is effectively bankrupt, will cover the arrears by selling
off several mines and other property.
Prosecutors detained former mine director Anatoly Ignatov on Thursday.
The Shakhty protest started just days after 160 workers at the Yeniseiskaya mine in Khakasia ended a 12-day hunger
strike. A court last week ordered the former director of that mine to pay a 50,000 ruble fine for withholding wages.
Meanwhile, the bankrupt Intaugol mine in the Komi republic started laying off miners Monday. It will lay off 601 of
its 830 workers this month, while the rest will be let go in September, Interfax said.
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[The Moscow Times] |
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