Sochi: builders of Olympic facility turn to ICRF on unpaid wages

The construction teams, involved in assembling the equipment of the Olympic Transport Directorate in Sochi, sent an application to the Investigating Department for the Krasnodar Territory of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) with a complaint about the delay of payment of salaries by the boss of the LLC "Sochiprofstroy-15.06".

The workers Valery Klischenko, Sergey Chirkov, Grigory Khristoforenko, Sergey Grischenko and Alexander Kompaneyets were assembling – from January to April – a fire-suppression system in the 14-storey building of the "Avtomobilist" Vacation Hotel. According to their story, the employer's debt to them is about half million roubles.

The workers said that their address to the Labour Inspectorate of the Krasnodar Territory was fruitless.

"The team of five people worked badly; that is why, I refused to pay them and fired them for absenteeism. Two of them wrote own-will dismissal applications," Yuri Chernov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"I don't know the particular case; however, I want to state that such violations of labour rights, such as non-conclusion of employment contracts, non-payment of wages and non-issuance of labour record books, are typical employers' violations for the whole Krasnodar Territory. Thus, employers save money on taxes. We penalize them, but in some cases criminal liability is envisaged, and provides for," Elena Dudka, the head of the division for labour safety of the State Labour Inspectorate for the Krasnodar Territory, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Let us remind you that earlier the Human Rights Watch stated violations of rights of labour migrants at Sochi Olympic construction sites.