MOSCOW, Aug 11 (Reuters) - A Russian worker who had not been
paid for months shot dead his company's accountant and wounded
its director, an official said on Tuesday.
A spokesman at the regional governor's office in Volgograd
in southern Russia said by telephone that the man, who worked at
a local firm which supplies fertilisers, had been told by his
boss last Thursday that he was unable to pay him.
The employee, who had a criminal record, returned to the
director's office later on Thursday with a sawn-off shotgun and
shot and wounded him. A woman accountant, who happened to be in
the office at the time, was killed accidentally.
"He was not drunk. When the police came and took him away,
he was asked why he did it. He said: 'Because I had not been
paid'," the spokesman said.
Many Russians have not been paid for months. The government
says low tax revenues have left it short of money to pay workers
in the public sector, which includes doctors and teachers.
Wage arrears have also piled up at many other companies,
including private firms, in a circle of debt in which companies
are short of money because the firms they supply cannot pay for
their deliveries.
Comments