BELGOROD. June 19 (Interfax) - Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said he was concerned about the problem of employment in the Shebekino municipal district, which has suffered from massive shelling.
"We have 11 large enterprises that have been damaged heavily. There are [also] a lot of enterprises in the retail and consumer services sector that have sustained damage. Therefore, there'll certainly be a problem with employment," Gladkov said at a teleconference on Monday.
According to the Belgorod regional Social Protection and Labor Ministry, 109 of the 209 big and medium-sized businesses in the Shebekino municipality are continuing to operate, with 3,200 people working there. Twenty businesses employing 9,400 people having downtime.
"Those who have switched to downtime now, it's about 20 businesses and over 9,000 people, need to be monitored so as there are no attempts to liquidate them. Therefore, we're remaining in touch with HR services," Yelena Batanova, Belgorod regional social protection and labor minister, said at the conference.
About 400 people from the Shebekino municipality have been employed, and 18 of them have volunteered to undergo retraining, Batanova said.
"People mainly seek not very skilled jobs, like in retail chains or beautification. We suppose people are trying not to bind themselves territorially to the city of Belgorod," she said.
Vladimir Zhdanov, head of the Shebekino municipal administration, said the administration and its institutions employ 551 people, and local social and educational organizations another 2,932 people.
"Of these people, 276 employees are already working in our municipal district, 55 employees are working at temporary workplaces outside of the district, at temporary accommodation center, and 53 others are working remotely, these are mainly accountants and those in charge of implementing regional and federal programs," Zhdanov said.
Eighty-seven employees are currently outside of the region and have no opportunity to work, as they have lost their homes, he said.
Gladkov instructed Zhdanov to make sure that Shebekino administration employees return within a week, promising that they will be properly accommodated.
"We will settle the issue of temporary housing. We need municipal government bodies to be on the ground," Gladkov said.
As reported earlier, the Shebekino municipality has been heavily shelled from Ukraine recently, and the authorities have arranged the evacuation of local residents to temporary accommodation centers both within the Belgorod region and in other parts of Russia. Some Shebekino residents who have left their homes have been staying with their relatives and friends.
It was also reported that local government employees and workers of budget-funded organizations who have been displaced because of the attacks would retain their salaries.
The Belgorod region's Social Protection and Labor Ministry said nearly 6,000 residents of the Shebekino municipality who have left their homes are currently staying at temporary accommodation centers and over 46,500 others outside of these centers.