Officers from Russia’s National Guard and OMON riot police cordoned off the contractor Petro-Hehua’s closed workers’ compound in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where the company houses migrant laborers from China. The Chinese laborers have been protesting over unpaid wages, the outlet Ostorozhno, Novosti reported on April 13. According to eyewitnesses, security forces are not allowing anyone into the camp, and workers have been told it would be best to stay put.
The outlet said that on the morning of April 13, several dozen Petro-Hehua employees gathered for a second consecutive day at the gates of a local oil refinery, where security personnel were stationed. No detentions were reported. By midday, the workers returned to the camp, after which authorities sealed off access to the site.
A day earlier, on April 12, more than 100 Petro-Hehua employees marched through the streets of Komsomolsk-on-Amur carrying signs in Russian and Chinese while appealing to Vladimir Putin and Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin. Khabarovsk Region Internal Policy Minister Sergei Dmitriyev said the trigger for the unrest was the termination of the contract between Rosneft and Petro-Hehua after the Russian oil giant accused the contractor of missing deadlines and performing poor-quality work in a project to modernize one of its refineries. The workers are demanding that the contract be reinstated and that they be granted a meeting with management, which is outside Russia.
The prosecutor’s office in Komsomolsk-on-Amur has opened an inspection into the issue of compliance with labor law in connection with the wage arrears. Russia’s Foreign Ministry and the Chinese Consulate General in Khabarovsk have been brought in to help resolve the conflict.
This is not the first labor dispute involving Petro-Hehua employees. In the fall of 2021, workers also repeatedly took to the streets demanding unpaid wages.
