Former workers of Turkish construction companies refuse to come to meeting at Chechen Office of Russian President

Employees of Turkish companies "Penta" and "Bora Inshaat", who planned to voice their problems on wage arrears at the Office of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Grozny, did not come to the meeting held on March 21 for safety reasons.

Adam Elmurzaev, Chief of the State Labour Inspection in the Chechen Republic, met the residents of Chechnya. The official said in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he was waiting for the employees of Turkish companies; however, they did not come to the meeting.

"In their situation, it is very difficult to recommend anything, since we are talking about non-compliance with labour rights of employers to employees with whom they had not signed contracts. The cases when contracts were concluded with some of the employees were rare, and most employees have no confirming documents. Wages were calculated on an hourly system. Moreover, this situation is an internal affair of Turkish companies, at which the affected employees worked, and it can be solved only within the interacting parties," the official believes.

One of the employees of the company "Bora Inshaat" explained the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that they did not come to the meeting at the Office of Russian President in Grozny for safety reasons: "After the brutal dispersal of the recent rally, we decided not to take risks once more, since we knew that our problem would not be solved at that meeting."

According to different estimates, Turkish companies employed 1500-2000 persons. Later, the citizens of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, who worked for those companies, were deported outside the republic because of expired visas. The workers of both companies, who remained in Chechnya, began to gather to spontaneous rallies.