17:46, 27 January 2016

HRC "Memorial": in Chechnya, deductions from salaries of state servants reach 70%

The participants of the rally in support of Kadyrov. Grozny 22, 2016. Photo by Nikolay Petrov for the "Caucasian Knot"

In the Shelkovskaya District of Chechnya, some amounts are systematically deducted from salaries of public employees of social protection sphere. This was reported by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

Residents of Chechnya, earlier interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot", had reported that some amounts are deducted from salaries of doctors, teachers, and policemen. According to officials, no one deducts money from salaries, and contributions are made by people voluntarily.

According to the HRC "Memorial", in the autumn of 2015, the human rights defenders were addressed by relatives of employees of the state fiscal institution "Complex Social Services Centre" of the Shelkovskaya District.

"They have complained that starting from May 2015, employees of the state institution began to receive approximately 30% of their earlier salaries," notes the press release.

According to the human rights defenders, they have sent a request to the Prosecutor's Office with a request to "eliminate the violations of labour rights if revealed." Following the results of the inspection, prosecutors refused to initiate criminal proceedings.

However, after the prosecutors' inspection, the relatives of the public employees of social protection sphere have again appealed to the human rights defenders with complaints.

"After that, according to the relatives of the public employees, those of them who complained were threatened with dismissal," reports the press release issued by the human rights defenders. Then the employees of the "Complex Social Services Centre" "wrote statements that they had no claims."

The Division of Labour and People's Social Development of the Shelkovskaya District is led by Khedi Geremeeva, a sister of Ruslan Geremeev, involved in the criminal case of the murder of politician Boris Nemtsov, the HRC "Memorial" reports.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.