New Employment Law Introduces Special Support Measures for CBO Participants

The draft of the new version of the law “On Employment in the Russian Federation” was submitted to the State Duma on January 11. It introduces categories of self-employed, as well as “platform employed”, including taxi drivers and couriers, and citizens at risk of dismissal. The draft was submitted by five senators, including Federation Council Chairwoman Valentina Matviyenko and her first deputy Andrey Turchak (both United Russia members), as well as five State Duma deputies headed by House Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin (United Russia). Vedomosti got acquainted with the document. The previous version of the law “On Employment in the Russian Federation” was adopted in 1991, since that time the labor market “has undergone significant changes,” the explanatory note says.

Special support measures in the field of employment, in particular, are being introduced for former participants in a special military operation (SVO). “Additional measures of the state policy in the field of employment include measures <...> aimed at <…> promotion of employment for citizens who have completed military service by mobilization or military service under a contract, <…> as well as citizens related to members of their family,” the text of the bill says. In addition, the wives or husbands of military personnel and citizens dismissed from military service, according to the document, “ceteris paribus, have the preferential right to work at state and municipal unitary enterprises.”

The bill “creates a legal basis” for other acts, one of the authors, deputy head of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, Andrey Isaev, told Vedomosti. For example, based on the norms of the new version of the law, programs can be developed to promote the employment of family members of SVO participants, he says. These support measures can be formalized in the form of government decrees, the deputy specified.

“We are talking about quotas for jobs, or the use of social contract funds. For example, if a CBO participant ceases to operate as an individual entrepreneur, then his family can re-profile the business. His family can do this, since part of the funds of the social contract is distributed through the employment promotion service,” Isaev said. In addition, special programs can be created to improve the skills and retrain those who have returned from the SVO. “We issue a basis for their acceptance. There were no relevant regulations in the employment law, and this will apply to participants in all hostilities, ”he stressed.

“Our initiative will replace the law that has been in place since the early 1990s. Its task is to be more modern and flexible,” Senator, Deputy Secretary of the United Russia General Council Daria Lantratova told Vedomosti. “It now provides for mechanisms that meet current life situations.”

What is important, the draft law singles out the military, former participants in the special operation, and members of their families as a separate category, Lantratova notes: “And this is another step in creating a support system for our guys, additional opportunities for their “soft” return to civilian life.” The party has already been working in this direction, she notes: the legislation was adjusted during 2022, providing for quotas for military children in universities, credit holidays, keeping jobs for those mobilized, etc.

But the “social” amendments in the new version of the law are not limited to this.

“For example, it now provides for the possibility of short part-time jobs even if a person is registered with the employment service, and great opportunities to support citizens,” Lantratova notes. The big block concerns education and youth (14-35 years old). It is supposed to take into account the need of the labor market in the target figures for admission to training at the expense of budget allocations from the federal budget, etc.

In order to encourage employers to take young people to work, the White House will separately establish the procedure for providing support measures, she noted. And for young people, the right to their social guarantees will be prescribed on a par with those who are looking for work for the first time, even if before that they worked in their free time from school.

Today, the demand for former military in the labor market is high, says Pavel Razov, professor at the Financial University. “Once [против России] began to impose sanctions, then a benchmark for import substitution appeared. There are more opportunities for military personnel to prove themselves in the labor market from a technical, engineering or managerial point of view,” he says. Former military men can find jobs, for example, in logistics, manufacturing, agriculture, as well as in defense repair plants, the expert said.

“In the context of the transition of the economy to a military footing, and now the economy is mobilizing due to sanctions pressure and external threats, specialists from the armed forces are becoming in demand. The emphasis on the military-industrial complex appears on the market, ”Razov told Vedomosti. People who have been in extreme situations are more adapted to changing conditions, to an unstable market, he notes. In these conditions, the skills of quick analysis of the situation and the ability to quickly and reasonably make decisions that they have are in demand.

The time when citizens returned after participating in conflicts in Afghanistan and Chechnya was “completely different” – then a person in uniform was perceived almost as a threat, Razov claims. “Now the conditions are completely different, before people even hid their participation in hostilities. Now this is a special category. If there are no mental disorders, then the labor market treats participants in hostilities positively,” said the professor at the Financial University.

Veterans of military operations in Afghanistan had no real benefits in the 1990s, says the leader of the Russian Union of Afghanistan Veterans, ex-senator Franz Klintsevich. In 1993, the law on veterans was passed, but in order to implement it, “it was necessary at that time two and a half of the country’s budget,” he said. “Veterans lived as best they could. All that was – survival and amateur performance at the level of organizations. All that stood out was five rubles to the regiment commander to give a telegram that your son was dead, ”he told Vedomosti.