MOSCOW, April 20 (RAPSI) – Numerous labor law violations were revealed during an inspection of companies involved in construction of Vostochny Cosmodrome facilities in the Far East, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced on Monday.
Over 100 complaints have been submitted over labor law violations, and over 170 individuals have been fined or disciplined, according to prosecutors.
Following the inspection, the rights of over 1,300 workers who were owed over 25 million rubles ($495,000) have been restored.
Construction workers at the cosmodrome went on hunger strikes several times in protest over payment delays.
“One of the reasons behind the problem is the inefficient monitoring of subsidiaries and subcontractors by Dalspetsstroy,” the company that is managing the construction of the Vostochny spaceport, according to prosecutors. Additionally, Dalspetsstroy reportedly hired “subcontractors that had outstanding debts and did not have the necessary material resources and equipment.”
The prosecutor’s office has issued a warning to Vitaly Leonov, the acting director general of TMK (Pacific Bridge Building Company) where wage arrears for January-March 2015 exceeded 111 million rubles ($2.2 million). Moreover, according to prosecutors, it is likely that the company will not pay wages in April either.
A decision has been made to initiate administrative proceedings against the management of several other companies that have not paid wages to their personnel, including Yevgeny Orlov, director of the company Sistemy i Seti (Systems and Grids) and Fyodor Khadzhioglo, director of StroyServisRemont. Administrative proceedings against local construction engineering company RegionStroyEngineering have also begun.
The Vostochny Space Center is under construction near Uglegorsk in the Amur Region in the Russian Far East. The first carrier rocket is planned to be launched this year, and the first manned mission is scheduled for 2018. The facility is to be finished by November 30, 2015.
The construction management repeatedly reported that the project was behind schedule at some sites but promised to catch up soon. The Dalspetsstroy manager was fired in 2013, when it was revealed that the government had not received complete information about the delays.