‘The wage arrears in Sverdlovsk Region came to 30 million RUR on January 1, 2007; however, the figure reached the point of 152 million on December 1, 2006. The debt was reduced due the joint efforts of the public prosecution authorities, local government, and Sverdlovsk Region Labour inspectorate,’ Deputy State Inspector for Legal Issues of Sverdlovsk Region division of Labour inspectorate Maxim Vedernikov announced at the press conference.

Last year’s inspections revealed that 533 regional enterprises failed to pay the salaries on time to 23,336 employees. As a result, 858 orders to eliminate the debt were issued, and 15,000 workers received 105 million RUR worth of salaries; 547 executives and 190 organizations were fined.

‘The inspection also touched upon the instances of lacking employment contracts and wages that were below the legal lower limit in order to reveal cases of tax evasion by the employers’ Mr Vedernikov said. The inspectorate found 68 enterprises with 282 instances of lacking contracts and 44 below-the-limit wages. The offenders had to pay 140,000 RUR worth of fines.