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Mr Putin called for tough action against industrial managers justly blamed for unpaid wages. He asked the minister why the entire strength of legislation was not used on such persons—in particular, the Labour Code, which stipulated a complex of stringent measures that promised sufficient redress in such situations.

Mr Pochinok said that the Prosecutor General’s staff had joined the campaign started in 2003 against wage arrears, and would launch criminal proceedings against many industrial managers.

Employees won 1.5 million back wage cases in 2003, the minister said.

There was an even worse problem, he added: wage arrears mostly affected bankrupt companies. There were 300,000 such companies in Russia, as far as he knew.

The situation was improving, however. Only 4.2 million employees were not paid on schedule in January 2004, as against 20 million in 2000, Mr Pochinok said.

The President ordered the Labour Minister to monitor the wage situation countrywide.

Mr Pochinok quoted encouraging statistics for 2003: real incomes increased by 14.5%, and the number of people living below the poverty line shrank to 27 million from 41 million in 1999.