On September 26, employees of Southern group of companies protesting delay in their salaries didn't show up for work.

Among them were steel fixers, concrete workers, carpenters and other labourers involved in the construction of aromatic hydrocarbons production complex at the Atyrau Oil Refinery. In the morning the workers refused to report to work and stayed in their hostel at 40 Govorov Street.

According to strikers (the majority of them are from Shymkent) they haven’t received their salaries since April. They said they want to quit right after their employer pays off their wages.

Igor TOMAS, the Director of Southern group of companies LLP said the salaries haven’t been paid since August, and not since April of this year. The company is the subcontractor of Eurasia Stroy Capital LLP, which in its turn, is the contractor of the Chinese Sinopec Engineering. Tomas promised to resolve the problem with salary payment within few days.

- After talking to workers our inspectors found out that Southern group of companies administration used to detain salaries on a constant basis, said Timur ESTEBAEV, the Director of Atyrau Oblast Labour Department under the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population. – The strikers wrote a letter to the Labour Department and we are processing an official audit with the prosecutor's office. As per the preliminary estimates, the total amount of salary indebtedness is nearly 2 mln tenge.

Murat SULTANGALIYEV