Translated material
Budget message
Civil servants' unions are preparing street actions
The pan-European surge in street trade union activity seems to have reached Russia. The unenviable situation of many public sector employees and the government's policy of struggling with the state treasury deficit, including by containing costs for the maintenance of budgetary institutions, encourage industry trade unions to join forces and draw attention to their problems through protests. The refusal of the economic bloc of the government to make contact with trade unions in the spheres of education, healthcare, culture and to carry out a significant indexation of salaries of public sector employees in 2011 forced trade unions to launch a public campaign in defense of the economic interests of the lowest paid part of civil servants. Trade union leaders warn that if the government does not make a “socially responsible decision,” a wave of protests could sweep across the country, similar in scale to the actions with which Russians greeted the monetization of benefits in 2005 .The Association of Trade Unions of Non-Production Sector Workers, which united labor organizations in the fields of education, health care and culture, makes it clear that the decision to organize a public campaign, including rallies and pickets, is largely a forced step. Back in July, at the association's congress, its founders adopted a resolution in which they expressed serious concern about the lack of progress in negotiations with the government regarding social guarantees for civil servants and their salaries. Neither negotiations within the framework of the Russian Tripartite Commission (RTC) under the government on the regulation of social and labor relations, nor numerous working groups and commissions of line ministries and departments yielded results, trade union leaders stated in July. “The Government of the Russian Federation is ignoring proposals for the formation of an effective system of state guarantees regarding the remuneration of employees of state (municipal) institutions,” the resolution says.
As the chairman of the trade union of healthcare workers, Mikhail Kuzmenko, noted in a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent, “trade union leaders have repeatedly tried to convey to the authorities that it is impossible to further freeze the indexation of salaries for public sector employees.” “The average salary of employees of healthcare institutions is 17-18 thousand rubles, but this is if they work overtime and take on additional responsibilities,” notes Mr. Kuzmenko. In practice, according to the trade union leader, doctors with little experience receive 8-11 thousand rubles, “which is completely unacceptable.” “At the same time, indexation of public sector employees’ salaries has not been carried out for two years. For next year it is currently planned at 6.5%, but this is clearly not enough, taking into account the constantly growing inflation,” Mr. Kuzmenko is perplexed.
According to the trade union leader, the current government policy so far clearly contradicts the authorities’ repeatedly declared intentions to improve the quality of public services offered to society. “Improving quality is directly related to increased requirements for employees. And you need to pay for it properly,” Mikhail Kuzmenko is sure. He warns that neglecting the interests of a huge part of the electorate, which includes civil servants, could backfire for the authorities - both from the point of view of the upcoming presidential elections and from the point of view of possible social protests. According to Mr. Kuzmenko, today there are about 9 million members of the Association of Trade Unions of Non-Production Sector Workers alone. “In total, 17 million people work in the public sector, and people are very unhappy,” the trade union leader recalled.
At the same time, he made it clear that the authorities had better listen to the demands of the trade unions before the situation gets out of control. “I do not rule out that the events that took place in 2005 (after the adoption of the law on the monetization of benefits - Ed. ) may be repeated,” said Mr. Kuzmenko, adding that for now the trade unions are trying to keep the protest in a civilized form. As part of the public campaign, defenders of the rights of public sector employees intend to picket the State Duma and organize “several rallies in the regions.”
It is noteworthy that the “budget” trade union leaders have already managed to enlist the support of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR), which, apparently, has found a good reason to criticize their eternal opponents - Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina. “We support the position of trade union organizations representing the interests of civil servants who are dissatisfied with the policy of the government’s financial bloc regarding the implementation of the promised social guarantees,” FNPR Secretary Alexander Shershukov said in an interview with a Vremya Novostei correspondent.
Director of the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements Boris Kagarlitsky does not believe in the effectiveness of pickets as a form of attracting the attention of authorities to specific problems. Nor does he believe that the public campaign will be as large-scale as in 2005. “If the trade unions started a strike campaign, I would believe that they are serious. But the authorities do not listen to the pickets. Everything indicates that they only want to highlight the problem that has developed in the budgetary sector,” Mr. Kagarlitsky noted in a conversation with a Vremya Novostei correspondent. According to the expert, the situation in the public sector really raises concerns, “therefore it is quite normal that pro-government trade unions are trying to prove to their members that their interests are heard.” “They simply have no choice. Another thing is that this is unlikely to solve the real problems of state employees,” Mr. Kagarlitsky doubts.