The Federation of Trade Unions of the Transnistrian region has met for a plenary session in Tiraspol to discuss, among other, the difficult social and economic situation of the people living in the region, Info-Prim Neo’s filed reporter said. The president of the Union Federation, Vladimir Sohin, stated in his report that the salaries paid to budget-funded and agricultural employees do not cover the basic expenses for public utilities, transport, education and medicine. The Federation has repeatedly informed the region’s authorities of the difficult social and economic situation of the employees and pensioners, but nothing has changed for the better. Salary debts owed to Transnistrian workers are on the increase, with the current amount owed exceeding 115 million Transnistrian rubles (about 150 million lei). For instance, the Tighina-based machinery factory hasn’t paid its workers for three moths now, the Tiraspol-based electric appliances factory – for two months, and the examples do not end here. The average salary paid by these factories is somewhere around 1,070 rubles (1,400 lei), which is by 22% less that the officially accepted minimum salary for the region - 1,215 rubles (1,600 lei). In 2007 the average salary of a worker in the region was 1,625 Transnistrian rubles (2,100 lei), taking into account that the pay disparity between different types of workers was very large. Officially, it rose by 28% from 2006, but inflation reduced the real-term growth to just 7%, with the prices of basic goods surging by 30-35%.