By Vestnik Kavkaza
Experts are discussing the prospects of rejection of the defined contribution pension system in Russia. At the moment the Russian pension system is mixed – there is a contribution element and a state-funded element. But skeptics fear that officials will eliminate the contribution element and expropriate all pension money in favor of the state. Meanwhile, the authorities are paying more attention to providing pensions in Crimea and Sevastopol.
“Speaking about pension laws, a series of laws was adopted, including the law on providing pensions to citizens who live in Crimea and Sevastopol. The pension systems of Russia and Ukraine are very different. The law was based on the presidential order that nobody should suffer. We can do it better, but we cannot do it worse. Pensions were doubled in Crimea. This corresponds to the real correlation between pensions in Ukraine and Russia. In Ukraine the average pension is half a Russian one. At the same time, from January 1st 2015, residents of Crimea and Sevastopol will receive pensions according to Russian law,” Andrei Isayev, the chairman of the State Duma Committee for Labor, Social Policy and Veterans’ Affairs, stated.
As for the labor legislation, he said that “the law on prohibition of agency work was adopted finally; it has been developing for 4.5 years. The scheme of agency work, which enabled employers to avoid meeting obligations to employees, understate salaries, not to make payments for employees to non-budget social foundations, will be prohibited in Russia from January 1st, 2016. From this point of view, Russia is ahead of the European countries, as today in Europe, unfortunately, the scheme of agency work is legal and spreading. According to some data, up to 40% of people work according to the agency work scheme in Germany; in Israel – up to 70%.”
Moreover, the State Duma ratified two conventions of the International Association of Labor on educational vacation with pay and on the right to the organization of a procedure under conditions of state employment. “We have a right of citizens to combine working and studying, and to get appropriate leave for preparing and passing exams. We have a trade union of state facilities’ employees. And it operates successfully. You realize that state employees cannot use such a powerful instrument of the trade union movement as a strike. But we have a different mechanism. Employment arbitration becomes obligatory in a dispute between a trade union and an administration of a structure, even though in other cases the sides are free to choose it or not,” Isayev explained.
