The World - News from Jan. 4, 1987

The outgoing Soviet health minister was reprimanded for failing to give salary increases to medical workers, the official Tass news agency said. Sergei P. Burenkov, whose retirement was announced last week, had failed to ensure that doctors and other medical worker received raises of an average 35% in November, as ordered by Soviet leaders in October, Tass said. It said Prime Minister Nikolai I. Ryzhkov also blamed other officials and ministries for failing to grant the hikes. The raises were an effort to redress salary imbalances between manual and skilled workers, with some doctors earning as little as $195 a month.