Existing Problems Solved Only through Joint Efforts of Trade Unions, Business and Government

In April 2021, the Standing Commission of the FNPR (the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia) General Council on "Northern Issues" instructed the Chairman of the Commission, Alexander Korchagin, to address the meeting of the FNPR Executive Committee on the need to consider as a separate issue current socio-economic conditions of the workers in the North at the following meeting.

The FNPR Executive Committee, held in June 2021, decided to hold the FNPR General Council dedicated to the issues of the North on November 24, 2021, and make “The trade unions’ tasks to protect the socio-economic rights of working people in the Extreme North and equivalent areas” a major issue.

In preparing for the meeting, three regional meetings of the FNPR Working Group were held: August 26 in Khabarovsk, August 30 in Khanty-Mansiysk and October 19 in Moscow.

More than 70 representatives of social partnership organizations took part in the meeting of the Working Group in Khabarovsk, including representatives of the government of the Khabarovsk Territory, the regional association of employers, prosecutors, deputies, representatives of branch trade unions and territorial associations of trade union organizations located in the northern territories.

The opening ceremony began with the welcoming speech of Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Territory on Social Issues Yevgeny Nikonov. He emphasized the need to form a unified federal program for the development of the northern territories. In his opinion, it is extremely important to maintain a balance of interests of workers and employers and provide for preserving norms so as not to worsen the existing conditions of the northerners. “Existing problems can be only solved through the joint efforts of trade unions, business and government,” Yevgeny Nikonov emphasized.

Alexander Korchagin, Chairman of the Standing Commission of the General Council of the FNPR on the Protection of the Socio-Economic Rights of Workers in the Extreme North and Equivalent Areas, Chairman of the Russian Oil and Gas Construction Trade Union presented the main report on behalf of the FNPR Working Group. In his report “Socio-economic factors of the development of the northern territories: problems and solutions”, he particularly noted that: “The Far East is a territory with its own unique economic potential. The development of the region is one of the most important strategic directions for the development of the Russian Federation”. To illustrate this, we can cite the words of Vladimir Putin, who emphasized that the rise of the Far East is “our national priority for the entire twenty-first century”.

At the meeting the participants discussed the most relevant questions of the socio-economic development of the Far East region, including the improvement of the normative legal acts governing the mechanism of providing state guarantees for people working and living in the northern territories; The peculiarities of the wage regulation in organizations located in the northern territories; The socio-economic situation of the Extreme North workers and the tasks of trade unions to improve the quality of their lives and a range of other topics.”

David Krishtal, Deputy Chairman of the FNPR, summed up the results of the discussion. He noted that “no exaggeration to say that Russia has no future without the development and further exploring of the North and the Far East. The solution of the socio-economic problems in these regions will lead to a general recovery of our country’s economy and contribute to the general socio-economic development of other Russian regions”.

The meeting of the FNPR Working Group in Khanty-Mansiysk was attended by 75 representatives of social partnership organizations, including representatives of the Department of Labor and Employment of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug (Ugra), representatives of major companies, representatives of sectoral trade unions and territorial associations of trade union organizations located in the region.

Alexey Okhlopkov, First Deputy Governor of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug (Ugra), addressing the participants in the meeting of the Working Group, proposed that for accelerating the development of the northern territories to include in the draft resolution a proposal to consider at the federal level the issue of preferential taxation of non-resource organizations in order to compensate for costs of doing business in the northern territories. “Speaking of pensions for the northerners, I suggest proposing the indexation of pensions for working pensioners in the same amounts as for non-working pensioners. We also consider it necessary to add a legal norm on the preservation of the regional coefficient to pensions, regardless of the future place of residence of the pensioner,” – he stressed.

Pavel Zavalny, President of the All-Russian Industrial Association of Employers of the Oil and Gas Industry, in his speech drew particular attention to the necessity to join the efforts of employers, trade unions and authorities in finding ways to solve the problems existing in the field of labor relations in the oil and gas industry in the North.