UrBC, Moscow, January 29, 2016. The Russian car manufacturer AvtoVAZ is going to cut its workers’ wages by 20%, Kommersant reports. ‘The pay will go down by 20% starting from February 15. Also, some 5,000 employees have already been switched to social work,’ President Bo Andersson said. It is explained the decision was taken since AvtoVAZ switches to a four-day week on February 15. The company’s BOD decided in November 2015 that production optimization and job cuts through natural decline were necessary. AvtoVAZ also warned that a shortened week or switching some workers to social work were

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 29, 2016. Students from N.A.Demidov Nizhniy Tagil State Vocational School complain their monthly scholarships did not come in time. Ves Tagil reports their January allowances still haven’t been distributed; this affected orphaned underage students particularly badly. ‘They say the money will only come at the end of February, and I just don’t know what to do. Don’t they care at all, how are students with no parents supposed to get by?’, one of the students said. The school management admitted the funding was running late. The school director Svetlana Morozova says

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 29, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region is facing flu medicine and protective supplies shortage. According to Tagilsky Rabochiy, all pharmacies in Nizhniy Tagil’s Gornozavodskoy District are out of oxolinic ointment; medical face masks are out in short supply. Additionally, there are not enough flu medicines available. ‘Just a few kinds have been proven to fight and prevent flu, including Tamifiu; this particular brand isn’t cheap and costs around 2,000 RUR. Our pharmacies are already out of it and are only expected to get some in stock early next week,’ head of the

UrBC, Moscow, January 29, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region’s employers failed to pay their workers a total of 8.4m RUR in wages and salaries in time, Rosstat reports. In Russia on the whole, the figure came to 3.572bn RUR. 32% of the overall amount is owed by employers in the processing industries, 26% by those in the transport sector, 23% by those in the construction industry, 6% by those in the fossil industry, and 5% by those in the agricultural, hunting, and timber industries. On average, 24% of the overall delayed amount was the workers’ last month’s pay; this figure came to as much as 49% in the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 29, 2016. Three representatives of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation are going to become members of Nizhniy Tagil Public Chamber. The company press service reports the candidates – Svetlana Aldushina and Vladimir Danilkin from the corporation’s youth club and Director of UBT-Ekologia – were supported by Nizhniy Tagil Duma deputies. Also, Mayor Sergei Nosov suggested six candidates himself, including Chair of Ural Vagon Zavod’s trade union Evgeny Lutokhin. This is the first time this Public Chamber is called in Nizhniy Tagil; there will be eighteen members there all in