Gukovo miners demand recalculation of their salary debts

Miners have stated at their picket in Gukovo that the total amount of the debts to employees of the "Kingcoal" group of companies should be complemented with the due surcharges to salaries. The picketers have complained that because of the payment delay they cannot pay their utility bills.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the employees of the bankrupt "Kingcoal" Company are regularly holding protests in the Rostov Region, demanding repayment of their multi-million salary debts, as well as providing them with the due ration coal.

According to organizers, the today's action was about 200 persons strong.

The picketers said that the authorities had repaid about 70 million roubles out of the total debt of 340 million, recognized by the authorities. However, Nikolai Nadkernichny, the coordinator of protests, said that the protesters disagree with the debt estimate of 340 million roubles.

Miners believe that the alimonies had been deducted from the total sum, which had been earlier withheld from workers' wages, but which had not been paid to single mothers. Besides, as Mr Nadkernichny has explained, the 15-percent surcharges to workers' wages and pensions, due to them for hazardous working conditions, "have hung in the air." Also, workers should be paid for the company's idleness, which happened not for their fault.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.