Kyiv, February 18 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The wage arrears to the employees of AeroSvit (Kyiv) are currently around UAH 80 million, representatives of the air carrier's trade unions and the Association of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine have said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.

"The situation is difficult and critical. The actions of shareholders over four years led to an artificial bankruptcy. The problem is the following: the company management is in every way preventing the payment of wages, severance pay, and does not issue official documents about wages so that people can at least register at the unemployment office. The total wage arrears that have not been paid for the third month in a row, are about UAH 80 million," said the president of the trade union of the association of civil aviation crews at AeroSvit, Vadym Rachitelny.

According to him, by March 15 nearly 1,800 employees will be fired (750 people will remain out of the current 2,547 employees), while 300-400 people have been dismissed.

Rachitelny said that, according to the trade union, employees authorized to manage Boeing-767 aircraft would remain among the crews of the company, as these aircraft will from April start performing long-haul flights.

"The crews of Boeing-737s have been fired," he said.

The head of the trade union of AeroSvit stewards, Veniamin Tymoshenko, who was present at the press conference, added that as of January 31 the airline's debt to the Pension Fund of Ukraine was UAH 8.6 million.

In response to the request of journalists to provide evidence that the bankruptcy of the airline is artificial, the trade union representatives reported that they had sent this data to corresponding law enforcement authorities.