The agenda includes social guarantees for those called up for military service, informing people about partial mobilisation, extending measures to support workers of enterprises that have suspended work, extending the fast-track procedure for registering medical devices, modernising primary healthcare, and stimulating the development of the domestic electronic industry.
Excerpts from transcript:
Mikhail Mishustin: Good afternoon, colleagues.
Last week the President announced a partial mobilisation. He instructed us to provide additional social guarantees for the people who will be called up for military service.
A government resolution was signed establishing that the employment contracts of workers who have been called up will be suspended, but not terminated. Their workplaces will be kept for them, and they will be able to return to their usual duties at the same company as before the military service.
We are preparing other measures to support our men.
Ms Golikova, please report in more detail on the decision made by the Government and on the initiatives that are currently under consideration.
Tatyana Golikova: Mr Mishustin, colleagues. As you said earlier, in accordance with the Presidential Executive Order On Partial Mobilisation in the Russian Federation, the Government, acting within the mandate granted to it in 2022 with regard to regulating the specifics of labour relations, adopted a resolution to the effect that, prior to amending the Labour Code and other federal laws in order to ensure social and labour guarantees, employment agreements and service contracts with the draftees called up under mobilisation shall be suspended, but not terminated. This resolution applies to employees and civil servants starting September 21 meaning that with an employee presenting a call-up paper, the employer shall issue an order to suspend the employment contract with that particular employee. All due payments must be made at that time. Under Article 59 of the Labour Code, another person may be hired under a fixed-term employment agreement to perform the absent employee’s duties. The employees that have been called up are granted the status of military personnel and are provided with all the guarantees applicable to contract military servicemen.
The period of military service, or any other service equivalent to it, shall be included in insurance job seniority for the purpose of assigning an old-age insurance pension. Furthermore, in addition to the overall pension insurance record that is taken into account when awarding a regular old-age pension, the current pension legislation provides for a special length of service that makes an individual eligible for early retirement benefits.
The Government and the deputies have drafted system-wide amendments to legislation aimed at ensuring the protection of the labour rights of all categories of citizens participating in the special military operation, including those who were called up under mobilisation and those who signed a contract for voluntary participation in the mission assigned to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
What are these changes? These changes will affect the Labour Code, laws on the public and civil service of the Russian Federation, insurance pensions, and compulsory social security insurance in case of temporary disability and in connection with motherhood, and individual personalised registration with the system of compulsory pension insurance.
The possibility to suspend an employment agreement (contract) for a period in question will be codified into law, and guarantees will be provided to family members of such employees if they have children under the age of 14 concerning their ineligibility, unless they agree to do so, for overtime, night shifts, work on weekends and holidays, business trips, as well as their preferential right to keep their jobs during staff cuts.
The suspension of an employment contract will not be deducted from calculations of the amount of temporary disability benefits. The period of voluntary participation in the mission assigned to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will be included in the qualifying period and information about suspended employment contracts will be provided to the Pension Fund.
Work is underway to draft amendments to the Government resolution covering the list of jobs, industries, occupations, positions, specialties and institutions that should be factored in when awarding early old-age insurance pensions and the procedures for calculating the periods of work that entitle individuals to voluntary pension coverage in order to be included in the special length of service entitling to early retirement, as well as periods of engagement in the special military operation for all of the above categories of citizens.
These amendments will answer most of the questions that our citizens may have and will protect their labour and social rights.
Mikhail Mishustin: Thank you, Ms Golikova. I would like to ask you to personally control the drafting of these documents. It is also important to answer people's questions on the partial mobilisation. During this period, it is necessary to inform people as much as possible about all the things that concern them.
Mr Chernyshenko, on Thursday I instructed you, together with the Ministry of Defence and other departments, to organise this work as quickly as possible and to use all available federal information resources, including the Объясняем.рф website and the 122 hotline.
How is this going, what has been done?
Dmitry Chernyshenko: Yes, of course, Mr Mishustin, under your instructions on informing people about the partial mobilisation, we have organised effective work with all ministries and regions through the Government Coordination Centre.
The main information channels, as you said, are Объясняем.рф and the 122 call centres. As you instructed, starting Thursday, the hotline has been working on the tasks of partial mobilisation in all the regions. The call centres have everything they need in terms of technical equipment, and everything has been checked.
Methodological recommendations for the selection of operators have been sent to the regions. If necessary, the governors can increase the number of call centre staff.
The line was open all weekend. We are constantly monitoring the service and record the average waiting time for a response. Along with the All-Russia People's Front, we are carrying out spot checks on the quality of the responses, and also quality assessment activities as part of The State for the People federal project.
Over the past few days, we have collected more than 100 standard questions from people on the partial mobilisation, and, together with the Ministry of Defence and other related ministries, we have prepared clear and understandable responses for people. They have been sent to all call centres all over Russia and posted on Объясняем.рф and other government websites.
As you instructed, new questions are processed by the relevant departments within a day. And if an unusual question is received by the operator or is posted on the public services website it is recorded, processed, and the response is posted on Объясняем.рф and sent out to the call centres.
Of course, the main thing for us when working with people is not just to receive and process calls, but to resolve the issue that a person has turned to us with. Once again, I would like to point this out to the regional heads since the answers should take into account the local peculiarities. In some regions, governors are introducing additional measures to support and encourage those who are called up for the partial mobilisation and their families.
Mr Mishustin, we and the Ministry of the Interior and Roskomnadzor are constantly monitoring the media and social media for inaccurate information on the partial mobilisation. Together with the Dialogue Autonomous Non-Profit Organisation, we identify fabricated information and promptly refute it. And I would like to ask everyone to focus only on the official channels, the statements by the Ministry of Defence, Объясняем.рф and the 122 hotline.
Mikhail Mishustin: Thank you, Mr Chernyshenko. Without a doubt, our people’s awareness must be raised. We must act swiftly to respond to all questions arising from a variety of life circumstances.
There’s more to the labour market-related decisions. The President made it clear that the Government should prioritise labour market issues. In early April, we established a special hiring procedure for the companies that were forced to suspend their operations in the wake of the sanctions. A resolution was adopted to extend this procedure through the end of 2023. People at risk of losing their jobs due to company closure may be temporarily transferred to other organisations. To do this, they will need to provide written consent and an employment centre referral. New employers will then conclude a fixed-term employment contract with these individuals. Labour relations with the core employer will be suspended rather than terminated and the individuals in question will be able to return to their places of work after the company in question resumes operations.
The Government extended the temporary procedure for supporting individuals who are at risk of losing their jobs and are looking for employment through the end of next year. This applies primarily to companies that are planning staff cuts or have announced imminent closures. As a rule, these employees either work part-time or have been furloughed. These individuals will continue to have access to employment centres and receive help with employment, retraining or starting their own businesses, and will be provided with financial support that will cover state incorporation as a business, a farm or a sole proprietor. The Government will continue to do everything necessary to ensure labour market stability and respond quickly to changing circumstances.
Now, on to public health issues. The President issued an instruction to ensure the availability of a sufficient number of medical products in our country. In order to fulfill this task, in the spring, we established a simplified procedure for registering the products with the greatest demand. We are extending this procedure through early 2025. The registration timeframe will be less than 22 business days, and it will take no more than five business days to obtain a certificate for consumables, research devices and procedures.
Domestic and foreign-made products will thus be brought to the market and delivered to hospitals and outpatient clinics faster. Doctors will have everything they need to provide quality medical care, including special diagnostics and treatment equipment.
The Government continues to help the regions improve primary care as directed by the President.
A resolution was approved to allocate another 3 billion roubles for this to 46 regions this year. The funds will be used to buy over 1,500 pieces of equipment, including ultrasound and X-ray machines and other medical products. Ambulances and medical delivery vehicles will be purchased as well. Doctors and paramedics will thus be able to respond to calls, which is particularly important in remote areas. Part of the funding will go to build new and overhaul existing medical buildings.
Renovation of the healthcare infrastructure will continue into next year. Ensuring modern and comfortable capacity in hospitals and outpatient clinics is a priority that all levels of Government should focus on.
There’s more. The Government will further incentivise the efforts to expand the domestic electronics industry. To this end, we will put in place an additional measure and support new projects at industrial technology parks and allocate special subsidies to the regions to match their spending for building specialised infrastructure.
This will be up to 300 million roubles annually for each region that submits a project for the selection procedure. These funds will cut the costs incurred by technology park management companies and, accordingly, create more favourable conditions for businesses, promote the creation of technology competences and collective research and design centres within such territories, and thus expand the capacity for designing and producing prototypes. This will create additional opportunities for testing electronic components and making high-quality end products.
We expect that the funds will help create at least 150,000 square metres of state-of-the-art production sites and up to 3,000 new jobs within the next seven years.
