"Root" fracture

From Monday there will be no foreign traders left in Moscow markets

Three days before the introduction in Russia of a complete ban on the work of foreigners in market trade, the capital’s authorities decided to warn citizens about the need to rebuild the existing way of life. Without trying to challenge either the government’s prohibitive resolution or the global message of President Vladimir Putin, who demanded last fall to decisively restore order in the markets , legalize trade and protect domestic producers, officials simply admitted: problems will begin, if not on April 1, then certainly on Monday. As Larisa Korzhneva, deputy head of the Moscow Department of Consumer Market and Services, said yesterday, the share of foreigners employed in retail trade will be reduced to zero: “After April 1, there will be no more of them in markets, tents and stalls. All entrepreneurs in this business have been warned not to hire foreigners.”

All this most likely means that on Monday, citizens who come to the markets will see many empty counters and closed stalls. However, if famine awaits the capital, it will only be for personnel. According to Ms. Korzhneva, despite the fact that the ban will affect only “non-indigenous” sellers and will not affect loaders and cleaners, about 18-20 thousand vacancies will appear in the trade. Since even after the introduction of a 40% limit on migrant labor in trade on January 15, guest workers accounted for approximately 25-30% of the total number of employees in this area, 1,429 enterprises still use their services. In addition, let us recall that even before the introduction of restrictions, Moscow’s retail trade experienced a deficit of approximately 60 thousand people.

At the same time, the fight for the complete expulsion of “non-indigenous” traders will be carried out with the most drastic measures. The fact that the migration service intends to closely monitor employers was stated yesterday by the head of the consumer market inspection department of the Federal Migration Service for Moscow, Viktor Makarov. He recalled that hiring a foreign seller or cashier will be punishable by a fine of up to 800 thousand rubles. and freezing of business for up to three months.

The fact that the capital's markets cannot avoid a significant shortage of labor resources is also predicted by the Moscow State Employment Service. “Moscow will not be able to meet the labor force needs of the metropolis on its own,” said Stanislav Melnikov, deputy head of this department. According to him, the city's demand for salespeople, cashiers and other market skills is three to four times higher than supply. And Russian regions are not able to satisfy this personnel shortage. Mr. Melnikov claims that in the 14 regions closest to the capital, where the city employment service has already applied for help, human resources have been exhausted. In addition, regional markets today are in dire need of trade workers. A negative feature of Moscow is that it is impossible to work on a rotational basis here - employers in the capital for the most part are not ready to provide temporary housing to visitors from the regions. This “shortsightedness” of the capital’s market business makes it much more difficult to attract workers from among Russian citizens, says a recruiter.

Regional agricultural producers, for whom 50% of the places on the city’s trading floors were reserved last fall (that’s 4,785 points), are also not responding properly to calls from the capital’s authorities. However, farmers did not appreciate this offer - last fall, at the height of the “vegetable” season, only 25% of the places were in demand. In general, according to Larisa Korzhneva, the level of use of retail space at agricultural markets in Moscow is 40-70%. They reach their maximum - 80-90% of used counters - on weekends, largely thanks to local gardeners and summer residents.

According to the director of the State Unitary Enterprise “Riga Market” Pavel Bykov, it would be possible to reduce the number of foreigners not in such an emergency manner. The small Riga market, with only 265 seats, began to attract domestic farmers back in 2002, however, solely for reasons of expanding the range and reducing the cost of goods. Thanks to this, according to Mr. Bykov, the number of foreign workers gradually decreased from 60 to 45%. However, this also happened because many migrants who were engaged, for example, in exotic fruit and vegetable products, managed to acquire Russian citizenship. “Now their task is to hire Russians, and it will cost them a lot,” says Mr. Bykov. “Unlike Russians, guest workers are ready to work a lot and for relatively little money.” According to him, domestic applicants for market vacancies are more demanding: they expect a salary of at least 1,000 rubles. per day, schedule from 9 am to 6 pm and two days off.

Listing the problems that the new market policy of the federal government will bring to the capital, and to them we can also add a very likely reduction in the range of fruits and vegetables in the summer, for example, melons from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, city officials still called on Muscovites not to succumb to panic. Firstly, because Moscow still hopes that the White House will decide to make amendments. As stated by the first deputy head of the department of consumer market and services, Georgy Smoleevsky, based on the results of 2007, during which the trading network will operate under conditions of limited labor resources, the mayor's office will formulate its proposals to the federal government. And secondly, officials are still encouraging themselves that “the market share in the Moscow retail network is not that large.” And the city policy for the development of the consumer market for 2007-2009 involves an annual reduction of the small retail trade network by 20% and the reorganization of most of the currently operating 102 trading floors into shopping centers, which are not subject to repressive measures against migrants.

Yulia KHOMCHENKO