MOSCOW (ILO News) – The Russian tripartite constituents – government, employers’ and workers’ organizations – and Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Guy Ryder, today signed a Programme of Cooperation for 2017-2020 aimed at improving job opportunities, social protection, increasing labour productivity, living standards and working conditions, as well as promoting international labour standards.

In the context of the slowdown of the global economy, the Russian Federation continues to make vigorous efforts to reduce distress in the national labour market. In 2015, the employment rate was 65.3 per cent, which exceeds the average employment rate in developed countries and European Union member States (64.9 per cent in 2014¹). However, despite the relatively satisfactory situation of the Russian labour market in general, regional labour markets are characterized by significant disparities in unemployment rates and the duration of unemployment, and by territorial mismatches between the demand for and supply of labour. Some regions have a high labour market tension indicator that is 1.5 times the average figure in the Russian Federation. These and other employment issues will be addressed under the Programme’s priority area – “increasing employment opportunities and labour productivity”.

Another priority issue in the new Programme is promoting workplace compliance and ensuring decent working conditions. In recent years, Russia has invested heavily in modernizing the national occupational safety and health and labour inspection systems. Legislation introducing a uniform procedure for workplace assessment that makes it possible to objectively identify and assess working conditions has been adopted. Russia also took the important step of setting up the Regional Alliance of Labour Inspections (RALI) for the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Mongolia.

In the coming four years, Russia and the ILO will work together to improve the social security system by focusing on greater pension system effectiveness, with the prospects to ratify ILO Convention No.102 soon, thereby, making it possible to guarantee a decent life at an old age.

Other priorities include strengthening social dialogue, particularly at the sectoral, regional, and municipal levels, and promoting international labour standards. Russia has already ratified 74 ILO Conventions to date, including the eight fundamental ones, and the work on the ratification and implementation of ILO Conventions will continue.

The Programme of Cooperation was signed during the ILO Director General’s visit to the Russian Federation. Guy Ryder will also attend celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the Russian company, LUKOIL, with whom the ILO has a partnership on youth employment.

¹ http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Employment_statistics