KYIV, March 29 – The amount of overdue wages owed to Ukrainian workers has decreased significantly since last year but 5.9 million employees are still owed back salaries, a senior official said Thursday.
The number of workers who have not been paid on time went down in the first quarter of this year by 3.1 million people compared to January-March last year, and the total owed – Hr 4.7 million ($868 million) – was 26.8 percent less than in the first quarter of 2000, said Labor Minister Ivan Sakhan.
In the state-run sector, the amount of back wages was reduced by 62.7 percent since 2000, he said, without providing the total figure.
For years, the problem of back wages has been one of the most painful ones for Ukraine’s struggling economy, which began showing signs of revival last year. The reformist government of Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko, named in late 1999, has declared the timely payment of wages and pensions to be one of its top priorities.
