But there are no guarantees that this work will be safe and will not affect studies
The State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill that simplifies the employment procedure for children over the age of 14: enough there will be the consent of one of the parents, mandatory preliminary medical examinations at the expense of employers can be replaced by a health certificate, and checks for compliance with the rights of minors will become possible only at the request of the child himself or one of his parents. During the discussion, fears were expressed that in this form the initiative would only make life easier for employers and the state.
A group of United Russia deputies submitted a bill to the State Duma in the fall of 2022. Speaking on behalf of the authors, the head of the Duma Committee on Youth Policy, Artem Metelev (ER), referred to the data of the VTsIOM survey, from which it follows that 91% of young people aged 14 to 18 would like to earn extra money, but no more than 600 thousand are employed annually, that is, about one in ten, and the rest of schoolchildren and college students find themselves in the «gray» zone due to the complexity of the rules prescribed in the Labor Code. “Many outstanding personalities began their careers from an early age. For example, Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council, worked on a collective farm every summer as a child, even worked as a combine operator…”, the speaker gave an additional argument in favor of the adoption of the bill.
The Labor Code even now allows concluding an employment contract with a student teenager who has reached the age of 14, “to perform light work in his free time from education, which does not harm his health and without prejudice to the development of the educational program,” but first you need to obtain the written consent of one of parents and guardianship authorities. For the sake of simplifying the procedure, it is proposed to remove the need to obtain the mandatory consent of the guardianship and guardianship authorities if the child lives in a family. In addition, the Ministry of Labor, in addition to the list of types of work in which the use of teenagers is prohibited, will also develop recommendations on where teenagers can be used. Based on these recommendations, regional authorities will prepare their own, taking into account local characteristics. The authors of the initiative want to make the mandatory now before hiring a teenager a medical examination at the expense of employers optional — a health certificate obtained as a result of a preventive medical examination at a school or college will suffice. And according to the authors, the prosecutor's office and other control bodies should conduct inspections of the working conditions of minors only upon the complaint of the minor himself or one of his parents (guardians) …
Ekaterina Stenyakina (“ER”), on behalf of the Committee on Labor and Social Policy, stated that “the point of the bill is not to expel teenagers to work, but to simplify procedures,” and it primarily concerns college students. Meanwhile, in the conclusion of the profile committee, which recognized the «relevance» of the initiative, many comments were made on the text of the document. The rule on control caused a lot of objections. And Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights under the President of the Russian Federation, in her response to the bill, noted that minors, due to their age, may not understand that their rights are being violated by the employer, and therefore not inform their parents or control authorities about this … finalization of the bill for the second reading and trade unions.
For some reason, the government did not submit its review.
“You say that children will be able to work in their free time from education? What does it mean: only during the holidays or after school? And who will evaluate whether additional employment harms education? Alexey Kurinny (KPRF) asked. Mr. Metelev explained that it is not only about working in the summer, but also about the opportunity to work on weekends or in their free time from school. According to him, “if the labor inspectorate sees that an employment contract with a teenager affects the deterioration of conditions for education, it will be terminated.”
“Is it normal if children have to work instead of summer, evening or Sunday rest?” — asked Mikhail Delyagin («SR»). And his faction colleague Oleg Nilov believes that if the child works after school, he will not be able to attend sports clubs and music schools. The Ministry of Education supports the bill, Mr. Metelev reminded, besides, no one requires teenagers to work without fail. But there are, according to him, such situations, “when work is a matter of survival” — for example, if a teenager from the village goes to college.
The head of the Duma Committee on Family and Children, Nina Ostanina (KPRF), drew attention to the fact that a legally working teenager can deprive a large or low-income family of the right to a single social allowance. Mr. Metelev shared Ms. Ostanina's concerns and said that the co-authors of the bill had already sent a letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin with a request to amend the procedure for determining the criteria of need and not to take into account the income of a teenager in the total family income.
As for the control over the use of the labor of minors, Mr. Metelev assured that before the second reading, a special meeting would be held with the participation of Rostrud, the Prosecutor General's Office and other interested departments, where they would discuss the question of «how to register correctly» so that the rights of minors were protected.