Russia to Begin Paying Workers Back Wages

Acting Prime Minister Sergei V. Kiriyenko said Saturday that the Russian government has found money to begin paying back wages owed to workers.

Kiriyenko, presiding over a meeting with regional and union leaders, said cash transfers could begin as early as Monday--before nationwide labor protests planned for Thursday, the Itar-Tass news agency said.

“Reasons that make people take to streets and join in the protest action are understandable, and the situation where people conscientiously work and do not get paid honestly earned money is humiliating,” Kiriyenko was quoted as saying.

Most of the wages are owed by regional governments, but the federal government has offered to lend them money covering up to 50% of what they need.

Kiriyenko noted that the federal government was responsible for only a small share of the wage debt but said this did not absolve Moscow of responsibility.

He also promised to work to ensure that such debts did not mount up again. “The work will be continuous--not just from time to time, not from one protest to another.”

Millions of workers in public and private sectors have not been paid for months, and official statistics show that wage arrears in all sectors of the economy totaled about $9.5 billion as of March 1. Of that figure, the federal and regional governments owe $1.2 billion.

President Boris N. Yeltsin, who had set a Jan. 1 deadline for wage arrears to be paid off, criticized then-Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin over the issue when he sacked him and all his ministers March 23.