Eriell workers demand unpaid salaries and compensation after four-month delay

Eriell, a company providing drilling and capital repair services to the oil and gas sector, has failed to pay its employees for several months.

In the video circulating on social media, workers appeal directly to the president for assistance in receiving their overdue salaries.

"Our Constitution, in Article 2, states: 'The state represents the will of the people and serves their interests, and state organs and officials are responsible to society and citizens.' We work at Eriell Company in the oil and gas industry. We have not received our salaries for August, September, October, and November 2024. Today is December 28," the workers said in their appeal.

They emphasized that under Article 333 of the new Labor Code, employers must pay a 10% compensation for delayed salaries and other payments. The workers called for the president’s intervention to ensure timely payments and compensation for delays.

"It is unjust and goes against the principles of fairness that we cannot receive our wages while working in our own homeland. We ask you, as our president, to restore justice. We also want to celebrate the holidays with our salaries," they added.

An Eriell employee who spoke to Kun.uz mentioned that the video was filmed in Urga, Karakalpakstan.

"They are workers from Eriell’s Ustyurt project. However, employees from all Eriell projects are facing salary issues, except those working on the Kandym project. Lukoil set a condition that if the company doesn’t pay employees' wages, they will not provide new wells. As a result, only those working on the Kandym project received their salaries up to September," the employee explained.

According to the employee, apart from those on the Kandym project, all other Eriell employees last received salaries in mid-November for work done in July. "Since then, no payments have been made," they added.

This is not the first instance of salary delays at Eriell. In September, the editorial office received a complaint from company workers who had not been paid for three months.

A similar situation has been observed at Enter Engineering, a company affiliated with Eriell. Kun.uz has received multiple complaints about Enter Engineering. In one case, employees from the company’s management office reported not receiving salaries for several months.

Additionally, several teachers at the Samarkand International University of Technology, which is connected to the company, have also gone unpaid for months.

According to the Labor Code, employees are entitled to receive their salaries no later than half a month after the due date.

It should also be noted that on September 1, a technogenic disaster occurred at the "25th Anniversary of Independence" mine project, causing hydrogen sulfide gas to leak into the atmosphere. Both Eriell and Enter Engineering are contractors for this project, with Eriell as the main contractor for mine development and Enter Engineering responsible for designing and constructing the gas processing plant and associated infrastructure under a "turnkey" contract.

Employees of both companies have expressed concerns that further salary delays may result from the disaster’s aftermath.

The beneficial owner of both companies, registered abroad, is reportedly Uzbek entrepreneur Bakhtiyor Fozilov. His business activities are managed by the Enera Group of Companies, which also oversees the expansion project of the country’s largest gas storage facility.