A building materials factory in the Russian region of Tula has paid its employees in bricks after it fell behind on salary payments, according to local media.

The factory owed the employees 4.4 million rubles ($64,000) in unpaid wages.

"To date we have paid off about 900,000 rubles ($13,000) of back pay to our employees in bricks. We have no other option. Our company accounts have been arrested," the CEO of the factory told the media.

Fourteen years ago the factory was acquired by another company which modernized the plant, and now has an outstanding debt of 47 million rubles ($690,000).

"The factory fell behind on wages because we’ve been producing bricks since the beginning of the year, but did not get any cash as we were repaying the debt," the CEO explained.

The Arbitration court has introduced supervision and appointed a bankruptcy trustee for the factory. On November 26 the court is to consider the bankruptcy of the enterprise.