KALININGRAD. Nov 18 (Interfax-AVN) - At the initiative of the Federation of Trade Unions of Armed Forces workers, the union of employees of the Baltic Fleet on Thursday staged protests to demand higher salaries in 2005.
"The Baltic Fleet trade union launched protests in the form of gatherings workers' groups to express disagreement with the government's decision to raise salaries for the Armed Forces' 'civilian personnel' as of January 2006, instead of January 2005," the leader of the Kaliningrad regional department of the Baltic Fleet Trade Union, Valery Nyrtsov, told Interfax.
"This obvious discrimination doesn't suit people," he said.
At present, the average monthly salary for Kaliningrad public sector employees stands at about 6,000 Russian rubles ($210.2), compared to 3,657 ($128.1) for the fleet's civil personnel.
Some 45% of the fleet's budget employees receive a monthly salary below the region's official subsistence level, which is fixed at 2,887 rubles ($101.2), Nyrtsov said.
According to him, the government's ill-conceived decision puts the Armed Forces' civilian personnel in a humiliated position, as it dooms the army and the navy to suffer from a lack of personnel which is developing already today.
"Most civilian positions in Baltic Fleet units are held by Defense Ministry veterans and pensioners already now, which may have serious consequences, as the personnel is aging," Nyrtsov said.
"We will hold a joint meeting of representatives of Baltic Fleet trade unions and the independent trade union of servicemen and law-enforcement agencies this afternoon to discuss the situation and to pass a collective address to supreme governing bodies, demanding to raise the salaries already in 2005," he said.