The Use of Law in Labour Relationship

Abstract

Myriam Désert — Professor, Dean, Paris-Sorbonne University. Address: 108 Boulevard Malesherbes, 75850, Paris Cedex 17, France. E-mail: myriam. desert@paris-sorbonne. fr

During the Soviet era, the principle of the dictatorship of proletariat denied the possibility of conflicting interests between workers and management. In post-soviet Russia, however, liberalism and privatization created new divisions between employers and employees that disrupted labour relations, which henceforth took shape against the backdrop of new socioeconomic rules. Responding to the demands for a new legal framework, the Russian Legislature developed new legal instruments to regulate labour relations: This paper considers how these are perceived and used in Russia today.
More precisely, this paper does not assess the efficiency or equity of the new Labour Code but uses this field as a window through which we can view the evolution of Russian legal culture. The sources consist of interviews that were conducted with various stakeholders: managers responsible for human relations and labour regulation in enterprises, employees involved in disputes with their employers, advocates for both sides such as lawyers, union representatives, legal-aid organizations and scholars who study conflicts between labour and management. These interviews were conducted in Moscow (in 2012 and 2013) and in Yekaterinburg (in 2014). On the basis of these sources, the practices and narratives of these various actors who are all in some way connected to the implementation of the new Russian labour laws are described. Insofar as these sources are all qualitative, they cannot provide a truly representative picture of labour relations in contemporary Russia. Nonetheless, the interviews illustrate how Russian legal culture actually works in everyday life. It provides a sketch in broad strokes of some of the major points of contention and contrast in terms of the representations and practices of the various actors. Some of the changing attitudes about these laws are identified and various social behaviours in creating, using and not using the law are highlighted.