MP Serhiy Lovochkin has requested that the government envisions an action framework aimed at finding comprehensive solution to the problem of unpaid wages and minimization of its social consequences as it drafts new agenda. This was stated in Lovochkin’s inquiry to Prime Minister Oleksii Honcharuk.

The politician wrote that during his previous tenure in the Verkhovna Rada, he had filed numerous requests to the government pointing at the need to solve the problem of wage arrears and its grave social consequences for tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens. However, the previous Cabinet of Ministers hadn’t taken any efficient measures on this. This resulted in accumulation of even higher debt, which reached 2.7bln hryvnia as of Aug. 1, 2019.

“I feel especially worried about the fact that in 2019 the debt growth rate has been the highest in sectors whose employees are the least protected socially compared to other sectors of the economy. I am talking of education, which has seen a 3.2-times increase in unpaid wages since early 2019, science with its 65-percent increase, and health care with 37-percent growth,” the inquiry reads.

The MP said the coal mining industry has been facing the same problem, unsolved by the previous administration (the wage arrears in coal industry grew by 16 percent in 2019). Same destructive processes are taking place in other strategically important sectors of the Ukrainian economy. For instance, mechanic engineering saw an 85-percent increase in unpaid wages since early 2019, coke production and oil refining — a 24-percent increase, and metallurgy — a 14-percent increase in unpaid wages.

“The highest wage arrears growth rate of 9 percent year-to-date has been recorded at the most active enterprises. This evidences the aggravation of negative trends in the economy,” Lovochkin said.