Students earning over $1,000 monthly at Belarusian nuclear station construction site

The salary of summer workers, who worked at the construction site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, has exceeded $1,000. The statement was made by Igor Buzovsky, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the public organization Belarusian Republican Youth Union (BRSM), Deputy Chairman of the Education, Science, Culture, and Social Development Commission of the Council of the Republic of Belarus, on 5 September, BelTA has learned.

Employed for projects to build the Belarusian nuclear power plant and the infrastructure in the town of Ostrovets, student summer workers performed wiring, concreting, painting, plastering, and earthmoving operations. Apart from that, students laid bricks, dismantled building structures, laid down pavement tiles and waterproofing layers. The Belarusian-Russian team of students hired for working at the construction site for the summer included 60 people: 40 students of the Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno and students of the Grodno State Light Industry Vocational School as well as 20 students of the Obninsk Nuclear Energy Institute, a branch of the national nuclear research university MEPhI (Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute).

According to Igor Buzovsky, the construction site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is not the only place where students earned such salaries. Over $1,000 was earned by students employed to build a school in Soligorsk, dairy farms in Zaslavl and Sharkovshchina, build an aqua park in Pobeditelei Avenue, the National Olympic Committee and the Student Village in Minsk. “You can get $1,000 not only in Minsk. Mind you it is not the salary for three months of summer, but a one-month salary,” stressed Igor Buzovsky.

At present over 87,000 young Belarusians enjoy various kinds of secondary employment. Thanks to changes and addenda introduced to presidential decree No. 181 of 16 April 2012, which regulates the operation of student summer work teams in Belarus, students can now work as student work teams from September to May, too. Earlier they were able to work in education, environmental protection, construction, agriculture, and services sphere only from 1 May and through 30 September. An approval of the administration of the student’s education institution is required for a student to be recruited for work from September till May.