The crisis with delayed salaries in Russia is deepening, and the problem has already spread to strategic enterprises, including oil refineries, writes the independent Russian publication Moscow Times.
According to employees, the Novoshakhtinsky Oil Refinery in the Rostov Region has not paid salaries for five months. The main reason is the refusal of the main contractor "NZPN Engineering" to pay subcontractors, which leaves assemblers, welders and other personnel without income. Complaints to regional authorities have so far yielded no results. The situation is further complicated by a recent drone attack and a fire that affected production.
According to official data from Rosstat, the total amount of unpaid wages by the end of May had reached 1.66 billion rubles - 3.4 times more than a year earlier. The Federation of Independent Trade Unions estimates the amount in July at around 1.7 billion rubles (over 35 million leva).
According to Kremlin data, since the beginning of the year, more than 100,000 workers have been placed on forced leave or transferred to part-time work - a phenomenon that experts define as growing "hidden unemployment".
The delay in wages for months is putting thousands of households in a difficult situation and raising the risk of social tension in regions heavily dependent on industrial enterprises and the energy sector.