The briefing’s agenda includes the upcoming May holidays and a coronavirus update for Russia and other countries.
Excerpts from the transcript:
Briefing by Tatyana Golikova
Question: Ms Golikova, this year, the days between the two May holidays have been declared non-working days. To whom does this decision apply?
Tatyana Golikova: In accordance with the President’s Executive Order of 23 April, non-working days include 4 May through 7 May 2021, with salary retention for employees. These non-working days were announced in order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection in the Russian Federation. This is the main goal of the executive order.
As for organising work on 4 through 7 May, under the executive order, government agencies, other agencies and organisations, as well as employers determine the number and composition of staff required to ensure the operation of government agencies, organisations and enterprises, including remote work. These decisions must be formalised in a directive or in instructions by the relevant agency or a local regulatory act by an organisation, in order to establish a working procedure. As I said, employees can work remotely in accordance with labour legislation if their duties can be fulfilled remotely.
I would also like to note that the non-working days in May 2021 cannot become grounds for lowering salaries.
To this end, workers who are paid a fixed piece rate will receive a relevant payment for the non-working days in accordance with a local regulatory act of an employer. The amount is fully considered to be a labour cost. Workers who are subject to this executive order should receive the salary implied by their contract to the same extent as if they had worked during these non-working days and met the quota related to time-based payment or the quota related to piece rate.
This sum usually includes a monthly salary, plus compensating payments and incentives. I want to draw your attention to the fact that the terms and conditions of making incentive payments are outlined by the collective contract of the employer. The salaries should be paid within the time limit prescribed by the relevant enterprise. If the payment day falls on a non-working day, the salary must be paid prior to that. Today, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection will send recommendations to employers and workers in accordance with the executive order. At the same time, I want to reiterate that the presidential executive order is aimed at preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus infection in the Russian Federation. Given that during working days, many people use public transit, especially in large cities, these decisions were made to cut passenger volume presuming that people will either stay home or leave for their dachas. Please, be guided by this executive order for complying with epidemiological requirements and preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus infection in the Russian Federation.
Question: Ms Golikova, will the authorities introduce additional restrictions during the May holidays?
Tatyana Golikova: First of all, I would like to say that all the Russian regions are continuing to enforce restrictive measures. The Russian regions are lifting restrictive measures only after assessing the spread of the new coronavirus infection in their region. In an effort to organise work prior to the May holidays and to update the relevant recommendations for the authorities and citizens, as regards compliance with restrictive measures, we have sent relevant recommendations to the regions’ authorities reminding them of the need to fulfill earlier Rospotrebnadzor recommendations. Actually, there is nothing new here. It is necessary to fulfil our traditional recommendations.
At first, I mentioned religious holidays, due be celebrated on 1-10 May. People will be attending church services, and they will also be visiting cemeteries. We have asked the heads of the religious denominations to observe traditional restrictive measures during this period of time.
Today, we have to retain the mask regime, monitor compliance with it, keep to social distancing and facilitate the disinfection regime. We would also like to specially note that it is necessary to regularly disinfect public transport which the people are actively using.
In addition to this, we have to retain the current safety measures at shopping centres, such as taking customers’ temperatures at entrances, monitoring compliance with the mask regime and disinfecting everything.
The federal emergency response centre for preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus infection has instructed regional emergency response centres to organise the work of medical institutions during the holidays and also during the weekends. They should stipulate the required number of on-duty medical teams for assisting the population. It is also necessary to facilitate the work of laboratories responsible for conducting COVID-19 tests and to stockpile the required amount of medication and PPE.
The vaccination will also continue during the holidays. And we are once again asking the people to get vaccinated as soon as possible because this will make it possible to attain herd immunity after 69 million people are vaccinated under our plans.
As of today, 11.9 million people have had jabs with the first component, and 7.5 million have received both components. The country’s regions continue to step up this procedure; however, this activity subsides during the holidays. Nevertheless, it is possible to continue the jab campaign in all the Russian regions, despite the movement of people across the country during the holidays.
Question: Due to the unfavourable coronavirus situation, the emergency response centre has limited flights to and from Turkey and Tanzania. What is the situation like in these countries?
Tatyana Golikova: The situation is challenging, especially in the Republic of Turkey. They have made domestic decisions to restrict movement and introduce a curfew.
Together with the Federal Air Transport Agency and Rostourism, we continue working hard to return Russian citizens from Turkey and Tanzania. As you know, flights have been suspended until 1 June 2021. I would like to ask our tour operators not to sell tours for dates after 1 June until the Government makes a final decision on the epidemiological situation in Turkey and Tanzania in order to reopen these countries for Russian citizens to go on holiday there. This is very important because it concerns Russians’ finances, and we should be very careful here.
