Kozyreva, P. M., & Smirnov, A. I. (2020). Social Guarantees and Benefits at the Workplace: Instability and Unpromising Dynamics. The Journal of Social Policy Studies. Retrieved from https: ...

Текст статьи на сайте журнала URL: https://jsps.hse.ru/article/view/11472 (дата обращения 14.01.2021)

Abstract

This article tracks changes to social guarantees and benefits for Russianworkers over the last two decades. The analysis is based on data from the ’Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey» (RLMS-HSE)’ which tracks howthe system of social guarantees and benefits at Russian enterprises changesover time. Important limitations to this monitoring system should be noted,such as the structure and content of the survey documents, and that questionsabout social benefits provision were not asked in all the versions of thesurvey. It was revealed that, despite positive shifts when it comes to ensuringsocial and economic rights, a considerable amount of the population stillcannot take advantage of the social guarantees which they are entitled to bylaw. Furthermore, given conditions of economic crisis, even relatively prosperousenterprises and organizations have been forced to withdraw some ofthe social benefits and services which they provide to their personnel inaddition to mandatory social guarantees. Workers in rural areas are morecomprehensively covered in terms of mandatory social guarantees, whileemployees at urban-based enterprises and organizations are provided withmore opportunities in provision of additional benefits and services. Afteranalysing various aspects of differentiation in terms in the provision of socialguarantees and benefits to employees at the workplace, we discovered anincrease in instability with regards to many additional social benefits andservices as well as growing inequality in access to such benefits at enterprises.Government enterprises tend to implement various forms of additional socialassistance more actively than private companies. However, it is executivesand specialists of high or middle qualification who are provided with mostadditional social benefits and services, while unskilled workers are providedwith the least benefits. Given a lack of highly skilled workers, providingemployees with additional social goods and services somewhat helps to fillhigh-tech job positions with specialists who are up to date in their training,which in addition only exacerbates social inequality.