KBR's MIA refuses to pay for militiamen's overtime

The presidium of the Supreme Court of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) has cancelled the ruling of the magistrate court and appeal judgement of the Nalchik City Court on the claim lodged by employees of the patrol-sentry militia regiment (PSMR) against the KBR's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) on collection of their overdue salary for their overtime work and other mandatory payments stipulated by Russian legislation, and sent the case to the Nalchik City Court for a new consideration.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by duly informed sources that 26 employees of the PSMR went to court against their Ministry claiming to collect their compensation for overtime work and work on weekends and holidays. The claimants also demand their debts to be indexed.

Back on August 2, 2007, the magistrate court ruled to satisfy the claim. The Nalchik City Court, which considered the MIA's cassation complaint, upheld the decision of the magistrate judge by its definition of June 23, 2008.

The sums to be collected in favour of the claimants range from about 360 to 460 thousand roubles. Two claimants state that the Ministry is due 696 and 762 thousand roubles respectively.

According to the source, on July 15, 2008, the Nalchik City Court issued a court order and sent it to the Ministry of Finance of Kabardino-Balkaria for enforcement. However, within a year the order was not fulfilled.

The KBR's MIA used this time for appealing against decision Nalchik City Court at the supervising instance.

The Republic's MIA asserts in its complaint that the volume of overtime work is legislatively limited - the Ministry of Finance allocates funds for this purpose at the rate of 120 overtime hours per year to 25 percent of the MIA's staff. Thus, payments for the overtime work exceeding 120 hours per year is qualified as no-target spent of funds; therefore, the claimants were paid their bonuses within the above limit.

On October 4, the employees of the PSMR addressed the social movement "Khase" for help in restoring justice and law.

Ibragim Yaganov, chairman of the "Khase", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the employees of the PSMR had passed through all possible instances, including the judicial ones, in the attempt to settle their problem.

"The Supreme Court of the KBR has passed a statement in satisfaction of the claim of the 26 employees of the PSMR and obliging the MIA to pay all the overdue bonuses in the total sum of about 9 million roubles. In the course of fighting for their rights, the militiamen got under severe pressure. Many of them were dismissed from interior bodied, and those who still work there are persecuted," said Mr Yaganov.