Trade unions deny subsistence minimum statistics

The Confederation of Azerbaijan Trade Unions (CATU) and renowned economists have estimated a consumer basket in Azerbaijan four times as high as data from the State Statistics Committee, CATU department chief Cingiz Tagiyev has told AssA-Irada.

Mr. Tagiyev has blasted months long delay of wages as violation of Constitutional rights of employees and the International Labor Organization Convention “On protection of wages”.

He said that the CATU determines a subsistence minimum in accordance with the Azeri law “On minimum consumer budget”, while the Statistics Committee “applies unknown criteria”.

The World Confederation of Trade Unions has said there is a policy of maintaining the level of wages in the former Soviet republics. As a result, prices have reached international standards, but salaries are still the same.

This policy in Azerbaijan led to an increase in real wages of 52-62 percent in 2001 to 1991. The figure was 8 percent in Moldova and 34-39 percent in Kazakhstan. Only in Byelorussia, this was 21 percent more than in the pro-reform period, the CATU reported.

The key, but no the only reason for the above picture is low productivity in CIS countries.*