Dozens of Moscow migrants filed the most massive lawsuit against their employer

“I was born in the Soviet Union, a combat veteran,” says one of the victims, a member of the initiative group Fakhhadi Sharifov from Uzbekistan. — The Soviet Union was a strong and powerful country. Thanks to the friendship of peoples of different nationalities. At the moment, Russia is our state, also strong and powerful. But I want to say and appeal to the competent authorities of the Prosecutor’s Office because of the injustice that happened to us.”

According to Sharifov, 60 people were accommodated in a fitness club in the Konkovo ​​area. They took away everyone’s documents, but didn’t pay them any money—at first they fed them with hopes, and then they just kicked them out. Probably in the hope that disenfranchised foreigners will not go anywhere to complain.

53-year-old Sharufat Shirinova came to Moscow from Uzbekistan not because of a good life, but to feed her children and grandchildren who remained in their homeland.

“I came to work at a fitness club and worked three shifts at a part-time job. They paid three thousand rubles for one-time work. Then the manager Alina said that there were not enough cleaners, and asked me to get a permanent one so as not to pay me every time. I agreed. But she quit a week later and gave me only 10 thousand in advance. And in January, another manager came and didn’t want to pay for the previous one, deceived and kicked everyone out, so I worked part of December and January for free,” the woman claims.

She says that attempts to somehow establish contact with employers have led nowhere. They ignore any attempts to contact them.

In all sixty cases, history, in general, repeats itself, they promised daily payments, then asked for documents to supposedly apply for permanent work, after a month or more of unpaid work, people received nothing, and they were simply kicked out. At the same time, daily payment was guaranteed on average 2,500 rubles per day for each person. Can you imagine what kind of total amounts we are talking about if this is calculated for six dozen workers?

In just one month it comes out to 4.5 million rubles. Where are they? And the deceived migrant workers are here, and they are ready to defend their rights. The latter is, of course, amazing. Those who hired them certainly did not count on this.

“Employers systematically engage in this practice. But this is a ticking time bomb. By such actions they intensify discontent among migrants; they want to make the migrants themselves guilty. And we work honestly. We are a hardworking people. They themselves create this situation. These are illegal actions. They act against the state in such a way that there will be scandals like this. I ask you to take care of this whole matter. I ask you to take action,” continues Fakhhadi Sharifov.

We can talk a lot about why to invite migrants to work, and in such numbers. But if there was no need, they would not come here. Demand creates supply.

In the USSR, they also called me to work in megacities according to the limit of provincials. Let us at least remember the heroines from “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears.” It was not just a chance to live in a big city, but also a certain social lift, an opportunity to escape from the unsettled state of our small Motherland and eventually stay in Moscow. The capital filled the lower vacancies in this way.

Now foreigners, especially those from Central Asia, also come for a reason. Their countries have an overpopulation and a still low standard of living. We have a real shortage of personnel in the labor market, which even the president complained about, especially low-skilled labor.

And you can talk a lot about the fact that if a janitor or a cleaning lady were paid two hundred thousand rubles for the work, then native Muscovites would line up there in a long line – let’s return to the sinful earth, this does not exist, has not happened and will not happen.

Alas, today there are much more risks when working for foreigners in the Russian Federation than bonuses – the laws are becoming stricter, hiring is being limited, as is the opportunity to receive preferences such as maternity capital for formalized Russian citizenship, there is no longer any point in coming to us educated and ambitious in the hope of the best the future, especially with such an attitude towards people.

“I worked in January, where the Konkovo ​​metro station was, as a cleaner. We were fired and promised that payment would be made on February 15th. Then February 25th. And now it’s March, but they still haven’t given it back. We write, they don’t answer. We call, they don’t answer the phone. They say today is today. Or they also say that tomorrow is tomorrow. This is how they deceive us,” sighs another victim, Muslim Makhsutov.

He admits that now he has to pay for a work patent and pay money for an apartment. He managed to move his family here. Which also needs to be fed. But there is no money.

And where should a person go in such a situation in a foreign city and in a foreign country? I wouldn’t like to remind you, but people driven to despair are capable of much…

And the policy regarding labor migration is in disarray and in disarray. It’s as if the authorities themselves don’t understand what they want to get in the end. Remove migrants completely? Who will take their place?! And there are no countries in the world that consider themselves developed where “foreign limiters” would not go in the hope of a better life.

If they don’t go, it means there is no life and no prospects there. Like, for example, North Korea or Afghanistan. There are definitely no migrants there. So we should be happy that someone is still interested in us as a labor market. Just don’t confuse migrant workers with personal slaves. Laws must be applied equally to all parties.

Comment by Maria Arkhipova, human rights activist:

– In the story of migrants who found themselves without wages, it is noteworthy that among them there are already citizens of the Russian Federation, although they were perceived by the employer as people who arrived, will not be able to stand up for themselves and their claims cannot threaten anything. In our case, people are ready to defend their rights, they have united.

What is most offensive to migrants is that they had a full-time job when cleaning premises, they worked in one place, expecting to receive a monthly salary, as a result, the majority of workers, due to non-payments, were unable, for example, to pay for a patent on time – this created additional problems. The same goes for those who pay loans and mortgages – now they have problems with banks. Someone borrowed money and expected to pay it back, but there is nothing to return.

People should be reminded that, in general, the Labor Code of the Russian Federation is on the side of the employee, regardless of whether he is Russian or not, and there are no problems with contacting the labor inspectorate, the prosecutor’s office, or filing a lawsuit. It’s just that many visitors feel vulnerable and are sometimes unaware that they have any rights at all. It’s understandable why they took their time and didn’t immediately seek help – they were simply afraid.