vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #613 / Social life / Reading article...

A former employee filed a suit against ‘Progress’ aviation plant in Primorye’s town of Arseniev demanding the plant’s management pay him for 12 years of working with secret documents.

Viktor Degtyaryov decided to sue the plant’s management after it fired him in March of 2006 but did not pay him the additional sum of the wages for working with classified information. The Progress plant produces Ka-50 ‘Black Shark’ helicopters and the personnel working with the technical documentation should receive compensation for such work according to Russian laws.

Degtyaryov started his career at the plant as a construction engineer but then was promoted and worked as head of the construction bureau for technical documentation of specialized equipment for 12 years.

Several years ago Degtyaryov was diagnosed with lung cancer and applied to the plant’s management asking for financial aid to undergo a costly operation but was refused.

He was disabled after the operation and in 2006 he was fired. When receiving the final wage-list Degtyaryov discovered that the compensation for working with secret documentation for 12 years was not included in his wages.

In his lawsuit, Degtyaryov claimed from Progress the sum of 213,181 rubles ($8,883) - the inflation-indexed 20-percent compensation to his regular wages which the factory owed him for the period from 1995 to 2006. He also claimed 100,000 rubles ($4,200) as compensation for moral damages.

The trial started in March 2006 and ended in August 2007 satisfying Degtyaryov’s demand and ruled that Progress plant should pay the compensation.

On April 1, 2008 Degtyaryov’s former employers attempted to appeal the court’s decision but failed. The plant’s management suggested it should pay Degtyaryov’s 19,450 rubles ($810) as compensation. The court did not satisfy this appeal and did not change the previous ruling.

Degtyaryov’s lawyer Maxim Sayenko, legal consultant for Primorye’s Trade Unions Association, said that Degtyaryov’s determination to fight for his rights deserves respect.

“This is not simply the case of the man who tried to get the money he earned. The case is about a cold-hearted mechanism called ‘business’ which commonly economizes at the expense of people regardless of price,” Sayenko said.