He said there was also a trend towards arrears diminishing in the public sector.
"This indicates that we have obtained serious results," Zhukov emphasised.
"There are practically no arrears in 78 of Russia's regions, and in five regions they are more than 10 days," Zhukov said.
The sum of wage arrears owed by budgets of all levels totals 2.5 billion roubles, according to Maxim Topilin, head of the Federal Labour and Employment Service. The worst-hit regions are the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Altai and Khabarovsk territories, and the Chelyabinsk region.
The federal service says that in November 2004 there were 132 criminal cases opened in Russia on facts of delays in the payment of wages and salaries, and 7 employers were convicted. Topilin said that another 772 materials were sent to the prosecutors to open criminal cases on wage delays of more than two months.
