On October 14, the representative office of the External Labor Migration Agency in Volgograd received an appeal from 36 citizens of Uzbekistan who worked in the Kamyzyak district of the Astrakhan Oblast of Russia, asking for assistance in collecting wages, UzNews.uz reported referring to the ELMA representative in Volgograd, Sh. Kattakhonov.
During the study of the appeal, it turned out that the employer E.A. did not pay wages for citizens over 6-8 months, promising to pay it at the end of the working season.
At the end of the working season, citizen E.A. bought the Uzbek migrants train tickets for October 14 to Uzbekistan and assured that he would pay the salary by withdrawing cash from ATMs located near the Aksaray station.
On October 13, citizens of Uzbekistan arrived at the railway station, but the employer did not show up at the indicated place.
On October 16, ELMA employees in Volgograd went to the Astrakhan Oblast to provide assistance to the victims. During the meeting with them, it turned out that the employer forced them to work 11 hours a day, seven days a week, and the entire infrastructure (barracks for citizens to live in, a greenhouse for growing seedlings) was built by them at the employer’s request.
The employer also entered into employment contracts with a salary of 8,500 rubles per month. 19 citizens had expired documents (patent, temporary registration), the remaining 17 citizens had documents expiring on October 20.
A telephone conversation was held with the employer E.A., during which he reported that he had no debts to citizens of Uzbekistan, and all wages were paid in full according to the schedule.
However, during a check of the history of payments to citizens’ bank cards, it was revealed that the funds were transferred from a certain citizen and did not comply with the employment contract, and were not recorded as wages.
ELMA employees organized a meeting with the prosecutor of the Kamyzyak district A. Glukhovsky, who declared his full readiness to provide assistance to citizens of Uzbekistan.
A meeting was also organized with a lawyer, with whom a statement was filed with the prosecutor of the Astrakhan region, the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Astrakhan Oblast, the Labor Inspectorate of the Astrakhan region and the human rights representative for the Astrakhan region.
Applications were collected from citizens to provide unified financial assistance and purchase air tickets to Uzbekistan in accordance with Resolution No. 725 of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
