The Head of the Confederation of Trade Unions,
S.Ganbaatar, yesterday told journalists that the way the ensuing wage increase
will work suggests much more gain for desk-bound bureaucrats than for hard
working teachers, doctors, nurses, cooks etc. He said the Government has not
replied to his demand for a category-wise revision of wages instead of the
blanket 30% increase for all state officials from October 1.

Office workers stand to gain more as their average salary
of MNT500,000 is considerably higher than the average MNT120,000 for
professionals, and so the increase will be correspondingly more, MNT150,000 for
the former and MNT36,000 for the others, further widening the gap. In other
words, the amount of increase for the office workers will be almost the same as
the total salary for the others.

The salary increase will apply to 150,000 state employees, 38,800 of whom work
in offices. This number includes secret agents, soldiers and emergency
authority workers who all work under difficult conditions, but have received no
special consideration. Ganbaatar found this special treatment of bureaucrats,
many of whom are popularly perceived to be unsympathetic to the common man,
unfair.