OREANDA-NEWS. August 03, 2009. The sum of arrears of wages amounts UAH 1.6 billion for now. It should be noted that state-owned enterprises and institutions have lower amount of arrears of salaries than private enterprises. First Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy of Ukraine Pavlo Rozenko informed in his interview to the Inter channel basing on data of the State Statistics Committee.

According to him, biggest debts are on enterprises of chemical and metallurgic area. However, last year the Government signed memorandum with metallurgic enterprises under which the country pays them compensation unless they fire their employees. Hundreds of workplaces have been saved owing to this memorandum.

“The country constantly takes measures to cut arrears. It is steady control on the part of the Government and checks of General Prosecutor and State Committee for Industrial Safety, Labour Protection and Mountain Supervision. But the state institutions have respective levers of influence only on state-owned enterprises. Debts on private enterprises are on conscience of their chiefs and owners. Though we control this issue permanently and seek ways out of this situation,” Pavlo Rozenko informed.