04:40, 15 February 2014

HRW: IOC urged Russian government to pay wage debts to builders of Olympic venues

The Russia's government has promised to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to pay the outstanding wage debts equivalent to 8.3 million US dollars to the builders of sports facilities and infrastructure of the Sochi Olympics, the international Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports.

The IOC has confirmed in its letter dated February 9, sent to the HRW, that the Russian government had conducted checks and found significant violations concerning wage-payment to many workers engaged in Olympic construction.

On the eve of the opening of the 2014 Games, the Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak announced the debt of 2 million roubles was paid to Olympic builders.

"However, the activists of the programme 'Migration and Law' of the Russian human rights organization 'Memorial' say that they have received applications from about 700 workers claiming that they still have not been paid," the HRW reports with reference to Semyon Simonov, the Sochi coordinator of the "Migration and Law".

The rights defenders explained that since many of the unpaid or underpaid workers have left Sochi, the authorities' promises arrived too late for them.