The labor issue The Russian labor market is in for a big transformation. To understand which path it can take, one can recall how this market has been regulated for the last hundred and fifty years.
Rapid industrial growth in the second half of the 19th century. gave rise to a new multi-million class of the population - industrial workers. Working conditions in the factories were harsh and wages, with few exceptions, were low; isolation from the usual village life, poverty and disorder made the workers one of the most restless groups of the population. Crime in this environment was significant, and dull dissatisfaction with living conditions led to the fact that the propagandists of the revolutionary parties invariably found grateful listeners among the workers.
In an attempt to mitigate the "labor question", the Russian government copied British and German social policies: it limited the use of child labor, established supervision over working conditions in factories, shortened the working day, and also tried to create controlled workers' organizations. So, it was forbidden to hire children under 12 years old in factories, and for children from 12 to 15 years old, the working day was limited by law to 8 hours. In addition, night and Sunday work was prohibited, as well as child labor in hazardous industries. Today, these rules rightly seem to us not very humane. However, in the 19th and early 20th centuries child labor in industry was still quite widespread, even in countries with developed labor laws like Germany .
For adolescents and adults, the working day since 1897 has been limited to 11.5 hours on weekdays and 10 hours on Saturdays and holidays. Sundays and holidays were non-working, of which there were 17 during the year.
There was also no guaranteed vacation for industrial workers.
It is easy to calculate that in industry the number of working hours per year was a huge figure - almost 3300. In fact, the actual working day was usually less than the maximum possible by law: for example, in 1913 it was approximately 10 hours.
Therefore, the actual duration of work was comparable to Western indicators: 2800-2900 hours per year (in Europe, the 8-hour working day will be introduced everywhere after the First World War). However, the working day was regulated only in industry, and only a small (on the order of a few percent) share of the entire able-bodied population worked in factories and factories. About 80% of the population was employed in agriculture - both as independent owners (in modern terms, individual entrepreneurs) and as hired workers. In addition to the peasants, the working day was irregular for small entrepreneurs - handicraftsmen, merchants, etc., and for many, as we would say today, service workers.
1905 Workers' strike at the Putilov factory during the First Russian Revolution. Newsreel TASS
The factory inspectorate, established in 1882, was supposed to resolve labor disputes between manufacturers and workers. One of its most important areas of activity was the regulation of fines, which the employer could previously impose almost without control. Since 1886, the law recognized only three reasons for fines: for absenteeism, "for faulty work" and "for disturbing the order", and for each fine the maximum possible amount was provided. The fines themselves did not go into the pocket of the manufacturer, but into a special monetary fund ("penalty capital"), which could only be spent on workers' benefits. The factory inspectorate ensured that the workers were not paid with goods, and also regulated the assortment and prices in factory shops. In reality, however, control was very weak: the entire staff of the factory inspectorate in 1889 was 259 people,
Another important aspect of the labor law reforms was the gradual emergence of social insurance. The 1903 law established uniform norms for compensation for disability (except in cases where the fault was "malicious intent" or "gross negligence" of the victims). For temporary disability, the employer paid a permanent benefit in the amount of half of the earnings until full recovery (treatment was also assigned to the employer); in case of partial disability, a lifetime pension was assigned depending on the severity of the injuries received; in case of disability - in the amount of two-thirds of the employee's salary. The same pension was due to family members in the event of the death of an employee. However, this law only applied to the factory and mining industries. In 1912
Undoubtedly, all these reforms were correct and necessary, but we should not forget that pre-revolutionary Russia was still at the beginning of a long journey.
Labor legislation was primitive, but extremely flexible.
In the fairness-efficiency dilemma well known to economists, the legislator clearly favored efficiency. Indeed, industry was the fastest growing sector of the pre-revolutionary economy. However, this came at a cost: social insurance was poorly developed and workers were economically unprotected. So, until 1906, the authorities did not allow the creation of independent trade unions at all, and after that they tried in every possible way to reduce their influence. As it turned out, the state made a big mistake: the revolutionary parties took advantage of the discontent of the workers. The restriction of legal ways to express discontent and resolve conflicts only increased radicalization.
The era of experiments
An eight-day working day was one of the main demands of the European social democracy, not excluding the Russian one. It was proclaimed by a decree of the Soviet government of October 29 (November 11), 1917 (at the same time, the week remained 48 hours, Saturday did not become a day off). And the labor code, introduced in 1918, proclaimed the right to a monthly paid vacation (although in 1922 the vacation was reduced to two weeks). However, in reality, the proclamation of the eight-hour working day did not change much. The fact is that by the end of 1917, Russian industry was already breathing its last, and the actual shift at the factories lasted even less than eight hours. At stake was simple physical survival: in the next few years, millions of people left the cities to escape starvation and fled to the countryside. Against the backdrop of the Civil War and devastation, few people were able to appreciate the new progressive labor legislation. In addition, the lion's share of the population was still made up of peasants, and the new norms, of course, did not apply to them.
Photo: Edgar Brukhanenko / TASS
The 20s and 30s were an era of experimentation, and labor law was no exception. For example, in the 1920s, the grid of holidays familiar to the Orthodox population, many of which were religious, almost completely changed. So, in the new calendar, not only the New Year (January 1), the International Day (May 1) and the Day of the Proletarian Revolution (November 7), but also such completely forgotten dates as January 22 (the anniversary of Bloody Sunday in a new way) appeared in the new calendar. style), March 12 (the anniversary of the overthrow of the autocracy according to the new style) and March 18 (the day of the Paris Commune - Lenin considered the Communards to be the immediate predecessors of the Bolsheviks). These holidays did not last long, only until the end of the 30s. However, the authorities were forced to reckon with the fact that most of the people still remained believers:
What a big change the work week has undergone. With the beginning of industrialization, the country switched to a seven-hour working day, and the working week became a five-day one. Formally, there were more days off (one every five days instead of one every seven days before), but in practice, the “five-day” brought a lot of confusion. The fact is that all the workers were divided into five groups, and each of them had days off on different days. Thus, for example,
Not surprisingly, the "five days" was extremely unpopular and was canceled after only two years. In 1931, it was replaced by a "six-day week", but the days off were made fixed. This system lasted until 1940, after which the working week with one day off (Sunday) returned to the country.
Industrial workers in Soviet Russia were considered the hegemonic class. Indeed, in the 1920s, their position in comparison, for example, with the peasants, could be called enviable. However, during the years of industrialization, it began to deteriorate rapidly. Although the working day was formally only seven hours, voluntary-compulsory overtime shifts were not uncommon. Compared to the 20s, real wages have dropped significantly. The famine of the early 30s also affected the workers, although to a much lesser extent than the collective farmers. In 1940, new misfortunes were added to this: a virtual ban on changing jobs without the permission of superiors and criminal penalties for absenteeism. For unauthorized (that is, without the permission of the director of the enterprise) leaving work by decree of June 26, 1940was supposed to be two to four months in prison. Punishment for absenteeism was milder: they were sentenced to "corrective labor", which served at the same place of work, but with the deduction of 25% of the salary for up to six months (to which, of course, a criminal record was added). During the war years, new restrictions were added to these: a ban on unauthorized departure from military enterprises, responsibility for evading mobilization for industrial construction, punishment for failure to complete the mandatory minimum of workdays for collective farmers, etc. It is curious that the ban on unauthorized change of place of work was preserved after the war and was canceled only in 1956. In total, more than 18 million people were convicted under various “labor” decrees during their validity .
Workers of the Volga Automobile Plant in Tolyatti. Photo: Viktor Velikzhanin / TASS
Soviet legacy
The period from the second half of the fifties to the second half of the seventies was a time of rapid growth of the Soviet economy. It was then that the main attributes of a welfare state appeared in the USSR: a pension system that covered all citizens, affordable and more or less free healthcare, a system of benefits and benefits, etc. Labor laws have also changed. In 1967, a second day off was introduced - Saturday, and the working week was reduced to 41 hours. And in 1971, a new Labor Code was adopted, which increased the vacation to 15 working days.
In contrast to the tsarist government, the Soviet government, at least after Stalin's death, put justice above efficiency, and this obviously went to the detriment of the latter. The Soviet Labor Code reliably protected the worker from dismissal - even absenteeism or drunkenness were often not sufficient grounds: the offended person went to court, where he could not only win the case and be reinstated at work, but also receive compensation for illegal dismissal. Another problem was the "equalization" in wages: it was impossible to allow the difference in pay for the same job to differ too much. Of course, this came at the expense of productivity.
The inflexibility of the late Soviet labor market was superimposed on the general problems of the planned economy and ultimately led to a slowdown in economic growth. After the collapse of the Soviet system, there was
which was greatly facilitated by the traditional weakness and dependence of the trade unions. The labor market became extremely flexible, and this helped the economy to overcome the transformational recession of the 90s. However, one cannot argue with the fact that this process was extremely painful.
One of the main imperatives of Soviet policy - under no circumstances should mass unemployment be allowed - continued to operate in the 1990s.
Compared to the magnitude of the economic downturn, unemployment has not risen as much as it often did during much smaller crises in Western countries. However, the reason for this was constant delays in wages, a decrease in their variable part, i.e. bonuses, payments "in envelopes", etc.
Tomorrow in Russia
In the 2000s, the pendulum swung again in the direction of justice: the modern Russian labor market is characterized by many low-paid and low-productive vacancies (often in the public sector), but the unemployment rate remains low - the state provides a kind of "basic income". Today, many economists are convinced that the upcoming economic crisis is of a transformational nature, which means that the Russian government will have to find a new balance between fairness and efficiency.
Most likely, the bet will be made on efficiency. The specificity of the Russian labor market lies in the fact that in the 1990s in our country there was a low percentage of unemployment: not registered, which depends on the amount of benefits and conditions of registration, but real, calculated according to the methodology of the International Labor Organization. This indicator fluctuated in the range from 5 to 7%. The reason is that in classical “capitalist countries” an employee will be fired rather than his salary reduced, while in Russia a person will be kept at work, but his salary will be reduced. Formally, all requirements will be met, but in this case people will have nowhere to go, which means that the price of labor “in general” will decrease. In this case, enterprises will not lose profits, but in whose favor this profit will be distributed is a big question.
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