Over Br2 billion will be allocated to increase the salaries of library workers in the Vitebsk region

April 21, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA /. The Vitebsk Regional Council of Deputies at an extraordinary session today decided to establish additional payments for employees of the region's library system. Over Br2 billion is to be allocated from the regional budget for these purposes, a BELTA correspondent reports. This will allow for an average increase in the salaries of library employees by Br140 thousand starting from May 1, said Larisa Olenskaya, Deputy Head of the Culture Department of the Regional Executive Committee. It is planned to introduce two types of additional payments: for education and for labor intensity. For individuals with higher specialized education and the first payment group, the increase will be Br200 thousand, while for specialists of lower qualification categories, additional payments ranging from Br80 thousand to Br160 thousand are provided. The possibility of increasing the remuneration of library employees was instructed to be worked out by the Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee, Alexander Kosinets, during a recent visit to the Vitebsk Regional Library. "For cultural workers, this decision is in a sense historic and will not only support library employees but also give them an additional incentive to improve their qualifications," believes Larisa Olenskaya. A total of 666 libraries operate in the region, including 544 institutions in rural areas, 40 children's libraries, and 56 urban and town libraries. More than 1.5 thousand specialists work in this field, of whom about 67% have higher and secondary specialized education. The average salary in the region's library system is about Br450 thousand, while in the culture sector as a whole, it is around Br530 thousand. -0-