#11
Vremya Novostei
December 20, 2001
Code for the Builder of Capitalism
Duma Legalizes New Relations between Employers and Employees
By Viktor Khamrayev
(therussianissues.com)
The Russians will feel the first tangible advantage of the new Labor Code, whose draft went through the second Duma hearing on Wednesday, in February. The Fatherland Defenders' Day marked on February 23 will now be a day off. The new Code which one Duma deputy loftily described as a new labor constitution is believed to be more relevant in reflecting new market realities than the current Soviet-era Labor Code.
The Government and the majority of deputies firmly believe that the Code will produce a positive impact on some aspects of our contemporary life. They say it will create social tranquility in society, give a sense of security to people and will increase popular trust in the Russian government.
However, some deputies were openly opposed to the new Code. They claimed that it was no different from the current Soviet-time Labor Code except for the fact that it has stripped employees of some of their rights as compared to the current labor laws. The parliamentary minority predicts grave social consequences, including social explosions, if some provisions of the new Labor Code are adopted.
Deputy Andrei Isayev from the Fatherland-All Russia faction said that for the first time in Russian history the minimal wage would be equal to the size of the subsistence level. Mr. Isayev emphasized that the clause had been included in the Code despite tough opposition from the Government which finally agreed to compromise. However, deputy Oleg Shein (the Regions of Russia Group) believes that the clause is merely declarative. Judging from earlier remarks by Vice-Premier Alexei Kudrin, the current minimal wage (450 rubles since December with the minimum subsistence level of 1,500 rubles) will not be raised in 2002, not to mention 2003 which is going to be a hard year for Russia.
Another advantage hailed by the Duma majority during yesterday's debate was that employees will get increased pay for overtime work which cannot last longer than four hours so that a working day does not exceed 12 hours. The minority, in turn, tried to catch the majority in slyness. The period for calculating overtime hours is one year. That means that no employer can be accused of exploiting his employee even if once a year the latter has to overwork 10 hours a day in the course of one week. Besides, only the first four hours of overtime work will be paid at a higher tariff.
However, the most heated and protracted debates were caused by collective agreements and trade unions' role.
The Government and the Duma called for a kind of social partnership between the employee, the employer and the state that are supposed to sign trilateral agreements at the all-Russian, regional and city levels. Bilateral collective treaties will be signed by employers and employees' representatives (trade unions) at each enterprise. The government has obliged all the three parties to sign collective agreements and has even contemplated fines for those who refuse to sign them. A collective agreement will only include clauses on which agreement has been reached by the parties. All disputable issues will be inserted in a protocol of differences which must also be signed. The Duma majority believes that the new scheme places tough obligations on empolyers. On the contrary, their opponents claimed that the scheme would relieve employers of all liabilities. If an employer is free to sign only that contract which suits his interests, he can forget about a protocol of differences.
Many questions were raised and posed when the Duma discussed the rights and obligations of employees or their representatives who are supposed to sign a collective agreement in their name. According to the draft Labor Code, only trade unions affiliating half of the workforce have the right to sign collective agreements. However, one enterprise can have several trade unions, and it is absolutely clear that the aforesaid provision is designed to defend the interests of large trade unions. Therefore, some deputies demanded that small trade unions should also be given the right to hold collective negotiations with employers. But those Duma deputies were in the minority.
The majority of deputies that voted for the new Labor Code also disagreed that it it bans strikes. A whole chapter devoted to strikes says that trade unions have the right to nothing more than to initiate extreme protests, while the final decision to stage a strike can only be passed by an assembly of workers which at least half of all employees should attend. By the logic of Code's authors, employers and employees are supposed to settle disputes without resorting to extreme pressure. The minority, in turn, believes that employees will strike anyway and that these protests will assume the form of spontaneous revolts.
Apart from the leftist factions, the Yabloko faction and the Regions of Russia group also found themselves in the minority on Wednesday. They fell short of four votes to defend the right of minor trade unions and remove the ban on strikes. Nevertheless, the draft was adopted by 283 votes. Only the leftist factions voted against it. The parliamentary minority plans to take a revenge later when amendments to other laws required to be made under the new Labor Code will be discussed.
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