VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
"You know that we have seen an increase in unemployment, albeit not as fast as several months ago, but an increase nonetheless. Already 2.2 million people have registered as unemployed. In order to make sure we can fulfil our social duties towards those citizens who have lost their jobs, the Government has decreed that 34 billion roubles will be allocated for this. Up to now we have financed these measures with the money that was earmarked for this earlier, but we are adding an extra 34 billion."
"Irrespective of anything we should do, our utmost aim must be to maintain people's living standards."
"The number one task today is to maintain the work collectives and, where possible, occupy people by retraining with a view to upgrading the technological level of their enterprise. All my meetings with people who have a responsible attitude to their work have demonstrated to me that they are aware of this. Everyone should be encouraged to behave in a socially responsible manner."
“The whole point of our measures to support the labour market, including the allocation of 43.7 billion roubles, is to support specific enterprises that are taking measures to preserve jobs or retrain their workforce for the future. Number one. Number two is the most important thing. Irrespective of anything we should do, our utmost aim must be to maintain people's living standards. We must work together to find the instruments and methods of solving that difficult task in the current conditions.”
“[Trade unions] should immediately respond to any violations of labour legislation, such as failure to honour commitments to employees during lay-offs, deliberate delays in the payment of salaries, leave allowances and other benefits. Regrettably, off-the-books salaries have again become reality. Off-the-books wages not only rob the budget. I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that they violate labour and future pension rights of employees. They don't always pay attention to details, and are happy to receive off-the-books wages, which are even a bit bigger. Usually, nobody thinks of the future, and that is wrong. I think that trade unions should prompt people on such issues.”
“I'd like to add that on a par with increasing unemployment benefit to 4,900 roubles, we have changed the order of declaring people unemployed. Now those who have quit their jobs of their own free will are also entitled to unemployment benefits. This new provision should also strengthen legal guarantees of citizens.”
"To help people who have lost or are about to lose their jobs, we are launching regional employment programmes that are funded by the federal budget by 95%. We believe that regional and local municipal budgets should also contribute to this effort. However, realising that the incomes of the regions will also decline, we have decided to finance these undertakings almost fully. A total of 43.7 billion roubles have been allocated from the federal budget for this purpose."
“We are planning to create about a million temporary jobs. Over 220,000 people will be able to retrain or get help in opening their own businesses.”
“People in different places, including some employment centres, have made it obvious to me that it is not enough to give money to open a business. Companies that lay off employers should help them set up small businesses near big organisations, or municipal authorities should meet them halfway and timely lease space to them, help them connect to utilities, and so on and so forth. We will talk about this, too.”
