Despite budget performance above target that was announced by the government in June, the very next month saw a sharp increase in wage arrears, including to public employees. According to MP Serhiy Lovochkin, even healthcare workers who are to be funded as top priority sector had their salary payments delayed.

“The wage debts increased by 8 percent in July, both in economic and social sectors. Healthcare and social service workers saw a 32-percent increase in wage arrears in a single month, and a 2.6-time increase since early 2020, by 28mln hryvnia. All of this is happening in 2020, when the pandemic has made the healthcare sector ever important for the society,” the politician said.

He noted that industrial manufacturing had also plunged, with a 70-percent increase in wage arrears in July.

“By August, the debts to industrial enterprises workers has reached 2.525bln hryvnia, 180mln of which added in July. The mining industry is a leader again, with debts to miners having increased by 57 percent in a single month. After just having dealt with older debts, the government goes on to accumulating new ones, thus creating even more points of social unrest,” the MP said.

“Last year, OPPOSITION PLATFORM – FOR LIFE successfully won that the state paid its debts to miners. We will put it up again on the agenda, as well as the matter of prioritizing the funding for healthcare. Healthcare workers who risk themselves to coronavirus daily must receive real salaries instead of abstract figures in payroll records,” Lovochkin said.