Observación (CEACR) - Adopción: 1998, Publicación: 87ª reunión CIT (1999)

Convenio sobre la protección del salario, 1949 (núm. 95) - Federación de Rusia (Ratificación : 1961)

Further to its previous observation, the Committee notes the information supplied by the Government both in writing and orally to the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards in June 1998 and the discussions which took place in that Committee. The Committee notes with regret that the Government has supplied neither a detailed report which was requested in its previous observation, nor any further information after the one submitted in June 1998 to the Conference Committee, nor replies to the observations made by the workers' organizations mentioned below, which were transmitted to the Government for comments (the first two in August, and the last one in October).

1. Present situation of wage arrears. Since the Committee's previous session, further comments have been received concerning the application of Article 12(1) of the Convention (Regular payment of wages) from workers' organizations as follows: a communication dated 24 April 1998 from the Central Committee of Timber and Related Industries Workers' Union of Russia states that 2 "trillion" roubles (US$334,000,000) of wages remain unpaid to the workers of the industry, amounting to the equivalent of three months' salary for all the workers. The Health Workers' Union of the Russian Federation, in a communication dated 28 May 1998, quotes the formal information received from the State Committee of Statistics of the Russian Federation, according to which the deficit in the resources for wages increased to 1,257,441,000 roubles as of 1 May 1998 from the amount of 229,436,000 roubles at 1 February 1998, and further indicates the amounts owed to the health sector workers in some regions (as of 1 May 1998, 85,487,000 roubles in Krasnoyarsk, 91,212,000 roubles in the Kemerovo region, 91,665,000 roubles in the Republic of Yakutia, 57,720,000 roubles in the Tumen region, 39,889,000 roubles in the Primorski Krai). The Education and Science Employees' Union of Russia indicates, in a communication dated 25 September 1998, that in the middle of August 1998, the total wage arrears to education workers reached 4.8 "billion" roubles (nearly US$800,000,000), constituting the average of 1.4 months' wage.

According to the information supplied by the Government to the 1998 Conference Committee, the total wage arrears at that time stood at 62,800,000,000 roubles, including 9,500,000,000 roubles of arrears due to the lack of direct financing out of the federal and regional budgets, and the amounts owed by the federal Government were not higher than 30 per cent. As to the indebtedness of enterprises financed from the regional and local budgets for 1997, the Government representative stated at the Conference Committee that the problem was practically eliminated through financial assistance of 20,000,000,000 roubles, and that in January 1998 only five regions of the Federation still had wage debts.

The Committee notes with great concern that there is no evidence of definite improvement in the situation of wage arrears, and that, on the contrary, the observations from workers' organizations, including the one received in autumn, rather point to even further aggravation of the situation.

2. Measures taken. With regard to the present situation of non-observance of Article 12(1) of the Convention, the Committee has for some years been emphasizing the importance of such means as: (i) effective supervision; (ii) imposition of appropriate penalties to prevent and punish infringements; and (iii) steps to make good the prejudice suffered.

According to the information provided by the Government to the Conference, the labour inspectorate carried out in 1997, together with the prosecutor's office, the tax inspection office, Ministries of Finance and the Police, inspections in 45,000 undertakings, which revealed more than 27,000 cases of violation of wage legislation and resulted in the payment of nearly 6,000,000,000 roubles. During the first five months of 1998, over 16,000 inspections made 1,700,000,000 roubles of wages paid.

Regarding sanctions, the Government representative to the Conference referred to the plan of draft legislation for 1998 including the elaboration of 75 draft federal laws covering, among others, the issue of the payment of wages. However, the draft laws to modify labour, administrative and criminal laws in order to increase liability for violation of wage legislation, submitted over a year ago, had not yet been adopted by Parliament. Reference was also made to a presidential decree adopted on 5 May 1998 on additional measures to ensure payment of wages to workers in the budgetary sphere and to improve the financial situation. In addition, a plan was approved by the Vice-Chairman of the federal Government for ensuring the resolution of the prompt payment of wages to the employees of organizations financed out of the budget.

However, the Committee notes the observation of the Health Workers' Union of the Russian Federation that the powers granted by legislation to the executive bodies in the regions allow them to have at their disposal all available financial resources including those allocated from the federal fund. The Education and Science Employees' Union of Russia considers that commitments jointly undertaken by the federal Government and local authorities to return arrears of wages are not implemented, and that no decision is taken as to how expenses should be met in federal educational establishments. Since the Government has not responded to the above-mentioned comments from the workers' organizations, the Committee invites the Government to provide its observations on the points raised.

The Committee further notes the statement of the Government made at the Conference to the effect that many managers of enterprises may be using the resources, instead of paying the wages, to resolve their financial problems at the expense of the State and their own workers. The Government admits that this could be explained by the fact that the economic, disciplinary and administrative liability for such action is inadequate as compared to the profit made.

3. In the light of the above, it is difficult for the Committee to conclude that all possible measures have been exhausted by the Government. The Committee notes that the Government tends to attribute the difficulty to various factors such as: the transition from the centrally planned to a market economy and the consequent structural reforms in the economy; the fall of prices in the international market of a series of Russia's export products; and the Asian financial crisis. It however notes the Government's positive statements that it shares the trade unions' concern about wage arrears and that the Government places its first priority on the solution of the problem of wage arrears, which could be found only in dialogue with the social partners.

The Committee therefore urges the Government to make an unequivocal and manifest commitment to put an end to this violation of the Convention, and to take all necessary measures to ensure the payment of wages on time and the rapid settlement of wage arrears already outstanding. It asks the Government to continue to supply information on them and the results achieved, by indicating concrete and specific measures taken by the Government rather than making statements of general principle.

In this regard, the Committee requests the Government to refer to the report of the committee set up to examine the representation made under article 24 of the ILO Constitution by Education International and the Education and Science Employees' Union of Russia, which was adopted by the Governing Body in November 1997, and the recommendations contained therein. It asks the Government to supply, in particular, detailed information on supervision, penalties and the settlement of wage arrears, including texts of any relevant legislation, such as the above-mentioned presidential decree and the one on the enhancement of penalties, when adopted. Please include reference to any specific measures taken to prevent the diversion to illicit purposes of funds which should be used to pay wages, in accordance with the above recommendations. The Committee would urge the Government to include information on any decision made by courts of law or other tribunals concerning the question of regular payment of wages.

4. The Committee shares the concern of the above committee which examined the representation as to the need to ensure that measures taken to reimburse wage arrears do not result in the violation of other provisions of the Convention. It notes that the Education and Science Employees' Union of Russia points out the increase in the payment of wages in kind in some regions.

The Committee notes that the Government has not replied to the previous observation concerning other provisions of the Convention such as: Article 3 concerning the prohibition of payment with promissory notes or coupons; Article 4 concerning the regulation of payment in kind; Article 11 on the treatment of wages as privileged credit in the case of bankruptcy; and Article 15 on the sanctions in case of violation. It requests the Government to indicate measures taken or envisaged to ensure not only the regular payment of wages but also the application of all the provisions of the Convention, and to supply a full report referring to each substantive provision of the Convention. It also requests the Government to include, for instance, extracts from official reports that show the number of investigations made, infringements observed and penalties imposed.

The Government is also asked to refer to the points raised in the direct request, which the Committee is repeating since no reply has been made for a few years.

[The Government is asked to report in detail in 1999.]