Women's labour: rights or privileges?

by Elena Temicheva

The editors are very much obliged to L. S. Rzhanitsyn, Doctor of Economy, Professor of the Institute of Economy of the Russian Academy of Science for the given information.

TODAY THERE ARE 30 MILLION WORKING WOMAN IN RUSSIA. THEY ARE NOT SOCIALLY PROTECTED AS EMPLOYEES IN THE CHANGED ECONOMIC SITUATION. THAT IS WHY KNOWLEDGE OF THEIR RIGHTS IN THE LABOUR SPHERE IS A NECESSARY CONDITION FOR SURVIVAL.

Regulation of labour relations is one of the main duties of the state. I underline - duties. Women's rights, which must be observed in the society very carefully (for safety and development of the society itself), are usually called privileges. Such privileges concern the pregnancy, breast-feeding and nursing periods - everything that is connected with maternity. A shortsighted employer, who keeps down allowances, who doesn't keep to conditions of women's work, risks to find himself in the personnel shortage situation in some years. A far-sighted employer, who decides to make not only a momentary profit and rapid cover of expenditures, are, unfortunately, rare today. Nothing is left for women but to take care of their rights themselves. For that it is necessary to have some idea of existing laws regulating labour relations, to know that in case of violation of each of them one can appeal to a court.

Laws that protect us

Rights and duties concerning job placement are established in the RF Constitution and are based on federal laws. Regulation of labour relations is connected with the Law of Employment, the Labour Code, the Living Wage Law and some laws in the sphere of compulsory social insurance.

The main article in the Labour Code, concerning women's labour, determines some measures, limiting or prohibiting application of women's labour (at hard, unhealthy and so on works), as well as social rights. Prohibition/limitation of overtime work, business trips; additional days-off, transference to easier works, additional holiday, guarantees when being employed and dismissed, allowance payment have to do with it. These privileges have to do, as a rule, with women who are pregnant, breast-feeding, nursing babies under 3, who have children under 14, invalid children or invalids from childhood under 18, who are unmarried or adoptive mothers.

When placing in a job, a woman can often hear a question not only about the present marital status but also about the supposed one. An employer either refuses at once or thinks three times whether he should engage a young mother or a woman who is going to marry and, therefore, is a potential mother. By law he has no right to refuse women because of their pregnancy or their having children (otherwise the refusal must be given in written form). It is not allowed to dismiss pregnant women or women having children under 3, unmarried mothers on the management initiative - except cases of complete company liquidation when dismissal is allowed only on the condition of obligatory job placement.

In Russia not only a mother but also any member of the family can take a parental leave, which is one of the longest in the world. It is very important for us. At present it happens that a father gets a smaller salary, then it is more profitable for the family when the father stays with the baby. Or both parents can work and the grandmother takes a parental leave. So the family has an opportunity to choose the most convenient decision.

A year ago (in April, 1999) some alterations, connected with the ratification of the ILO Convention № 156 by Russia, were made in the Labour Code. The main difference between the present code and the one existed earlier is that now the number of privileges, connected with the fact of having children (concerning the working day routine, holidays, dismissals), applies not only to mothers but also to some categories of men (in particular to those who bring up children themselves). The words "and also workers who have children under age or who take care of ill members of their families" were added to the title of the chapter "Women's labour".

According to these alterations an employer must grant them a part-time working day or working week by request of a pregnant woman or a worker who has a child under 14 (an invalid child or an invalid from the childhood under 18). The employer must have their agreement for overtime work or business trips. The employer must grant an additional holiday up to 14 calendar days (without their salary being preserved), if a worker who has 2 or more children under 14, of an unmarried mother or father and also in cases listed above puts in an application.

Privileges concerning social insurance, which are given to workers and in corresponding cases to members of their families, are determined in a special section of the Labour Code. At the present moment the rate of allowance payment concerning insurance coverage connected with maternity is the following:

• temporary disability allowance while caring for an ill child: during the 1st week - usual sick-leave payment, during the 2nd week- 50% of the payment;
• maternity allowance (70 days before and 70 days after delivery), in case of delivery without complications - 100% of an average wage;
• lump sum allowance for getting registered in a medical institution during the early pregnancy period - 1 minimum wage;
• lump sum allowance by the child's birth - 15 minimum wages;
• lump sum allowance when adopting a child - 100% of an average wage;
• parental allowance when nursing a baby under1,5 - 2 minimum wages a month.

Laws that are coming

Labour laws are the permanent headache of the government. It is necessary to amend them for them to correspond to changes, which are taking place in economic and social-labour relations. But not all the amendments are directed to strengthen the workers' position, a woman's one in particular. That is because the International Monetary Fund fears that the employer in Russia is greatly restricted in engaging and dismissing an employee. Now some bills about the new labour code have been introduced in the State Duma, including the labour code suggested by the RF government.

According to the government suggestion, privilege and guarantee standards are provided only for pregnant women and women having babies under 1,5. It contradicts with the amendments adopted in accordance with the ILO Convention concerning social guarantees.

Besides in this code they assume the dismissal of pregnant women and women with children under 3 on the employer's initiative when they are found guilty for some actions. At that some faults were added to the ones existed earlier (such as violation of requirements concerning labour protection, embezzlement, comimg to work in the state of alcoholic and drug intoxication). These faults are: giving false documents and information when concluding the labour contract, if these documents may be the reason for refusal to conclude the contract, and recurring non-observance of labour duties without any valid reasons.

If the code suggested by the government is accepted, then women's rights in the sphere of labour relations will be considerably infringed. There is nothing left for us but to guess why the government has suggested such actions, which are potentially directed to decreasing the population in our country, since the social defenselessness of working mothers will, first of all, reduce the birth rate.

The main thing is to understand that the constant reconsideration of the existed standards and rules is not a panacea. The question is to observe those laws, which already exist, including those ones in the commercial sector. If we put on the scale social guarantees, of which commercial workers are mainly deprived, and high salaries in comparison to those in the state enterprises, it is not known what will tip the scales.

To observe laws in the sphere of labour relations, it is necessary to make courts more available for women to apply to in case of violation of their rights, without fearing to be a rara avis. The Russian Labour Inspection must see to execution of laws. For the time present it performs its functions only formally. At last trade unions at enterprises must be guarantors of social labour insurance at the local level. In the meantime this sphere of public relations goes through the period of feudal division - everyone is for himself.