Quota for labor

The Moscow City Duma was concerned about the employment of disabled people and youth yesterday, the Moscow City Duma Commission on Social Policy and Labor Relations and the Budgetary Finance Commission discussed the implementation of the capital's law “On Quoting of Workplaces”, which regulates the employment of disabled people and youth. As it turned out, entrepreneurs ignore it, and officials cannot do anything about it.

The capital's authorities took up forced quvoting at the end of 1997: then the first law was released dedicated to this problem. Enterprises on which 15 or more people work had to allocate jobs for any of the following categories of citizens at their own expense: disabled people, minors, orphans up to 23 years old, graduates of schools and vocational schools without work experience. If the businessman did not do this, he was obliged to deposit money to a special fund for each unprofitable (12 times the average salary in the city). This money is already directed to the creation of jobs.

The principle since then has remained unchanged, although the metropolitan lawmakers adopted two more editions of the city law, which took into account the amendments of federal legislation. For example, up to 100 people increased the minimum number of employees of the enterprise at which they are required to allocate quotas. And in 2005, the Supreme Court recognized the mandatory fees for failure to provide places to disabled people illegal. “This seriously complicated our life,” complained the head of the Moscow City Duma Commission on Social Policy and Labor Relations, Mikhail Antontsev.

But the capital's officials and deputies could hesitate to blame federal legislators: the organization of quotas is lame in Moscow. After the abolition of mandatory operations for refusing the employment of disabled people in the city, voluntary donations were introduced into a special target quotation fund. And the money arrives: in 2005 - 1.6 billion rubles, in 2006 - 1.5 billion rubles. The deputy head of the Committee of Public Relations Vladimir Romanov told how they were spent: in 2005 they created 3681 workplace for the disabled and youth, and last year - only 707. They could have much more: as of January 1, 2007, almost 1.5 billion rubles of funds of the fund remained. In other words, his annual income.

“Why collect money if they are not expended? - the head of the budgetary financial commission of the Moscow City Duma Igor Antonov was indignant. - You are now proposing to reduce the quotation threshold to 30 employees in the organization. Let's first organize work on creating jobs! ” There was no intelligible novels to this reproach. But he admitted to other problems. For example, he said, in order for the company to receive funds from the target fund to create places for disabled and youth, it must win the competition. “But the competitive documentation is so complicated that enterprises prefer not to contact,” the official admitted. He promised that in the near future the procedure would be simplified. This is not enough: it turned out that often budget money allocated unscrupulous employers. In other words, scammers. Last year, a check of the use of fund funds was tested. As a result, the controllers ordered to return 8 million rubles to the budget. In order to exclude such incidents, officials introduce preliminary checks of the participants of the competitions involving tax authorities. It is unlikely that such a prospect will attract entrepreneurs.

Moreover, businessmen can calmly ignore the quota law. “Not everyone observes it,” Romanov complained. But over the past two years, the authorities have not written out a single fine for such violations. Why - it remained a mystery.

Work quotas in Europe

The practice of quota of jobs is widely used in other countries. So, for example, in Germany, France and Hungary, an organization fall under the laws on quotas, where more than 20 employees work. In Austria and Poland, enterprises with more than 25 employees, and in Spain, the organization should have at least 50 people. All these enterprises at their own expense allocate jobs for certain categories of citizens - usually for disabled people. For example, quota for people with disabilities in French enterprises is 6%, in Germany - 5%, in Spain - 3%. In other European countries, quotas vary depending on the number of employees, making up an average of 2 to 5%. If the head of the enterprise does not fulfill the plan, he is fined. So, for example, in Germany, the amount of annual revenues from such fines can reach 200 million euros.

It is worth noting that, despite the debugged mechanism of work, the European system has its disadvantages. For example, some foreign employers, paying the disabled to a meager salary, actually do not allow them to work.

02/26/2007 / Matvey Masaltsev, Ivan Sotnikov, the material was published in the newspaper No. 35 dated 02.27.2007.