OREANDA-NEWS. July 01, 2010. President Viktor Yanukovych instructed Prime Minister Mykola Azarov to personally supervise that salaries are paid on time and to examine at the expanded Cabinet meeting with participation of representatives from the Prosecutor General’s Office, regional administrations and local authorities, trade unions and association of employers whether the right for timely payment for work is guaranteed to citizens properly. The abovementioned instruction is to be executed by August 1.

According to the instructions of the President, the Prime Minister is to consider dismissing top managers of enterprises under management of ministries and other executive authorities if they fail to pay out at least half of the arrears of salaries to employees by October 1.

Already by August 1, the Government is to take measures to reinforce the Department of State Supervision over Observation of Labor Legislation, and to consider the issue of VAT refunds to enterprises, which are to be used by them for payment of arrears of wages to workers.

By August 1, the Cabinet should examine the situation and introduce draft bills aimed at improving social protection of workers who are owed wages to, and increase the responsibility of employers for late payment of wages. This means improvement of compensations to workers for delayed payment of wages (the compensation should be double the NBU discount rate for each day of delay), establishment of a guarantee fund for workers to cover claims of workers who cannot get their pay due to insolvency or bankruptcy of the employer, providing short-term concessional loans for payment of arrears of wages to economically active state utility companies and farms, etc.

Besides, the President gave a number of assignments to ministers and chairmen of other central executive authorities, President of the Council of Ministers of Crimea, chairmen of regional, Kyiv and Sevastopol city administrations.

Particularly, this was to examine by July 15 with participation of trade unions and employers the situation in payment of arrears of wages, these payments’ correspondence with financial and economic capabilities of the enterprises and to elaborate measures to solve these problems.

The President also stressed it is important to improve the work of commissions on timely and complete payment of taxes and arrears of wages, pensions, scholarships and other social benefits by introducing meetings of these commissions at enterprises that have debts.

President Yanukovych suggested publishing monthly lists of enterprises that show good results in payment of arrears of wages to their workers as well as those showing the worst results in that area.

Besides, Viktor Yanukovych expects Prosecutor General Oleksandr Medvedko to conduct by August 1 an analysis of the Prosecutor Office's work in fighting violations of labor legislation and to improve that work.