A new non-government organization, the Russian Union of Employers in the Fishery Industry (RUEFI), was established in late November with the objective of being a signatory to a trilateral agreement between the government, business, and labor in the seafood and fishing industries.
The union was initiated in January 2018 by the Commission on Fishery and Aquaculture of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, and the All-Russian Association of Fishing Industry (VARPE), the most active and influential fishery non-government organization in the country. In February 2018, the idea was supported by delegates of the IV Congress of Fishermen and RUEFI was founded by an initial 59 fishery-related businesses.
German Zverev, president of VARPE and vice president of RUEFI, said Russia’s fishing and seafood sector is one the country’s few industries that doesn’t have a trilateral agreement between employers and employees, with the participation of the government, which could help negotiatiations on issues such as salaries.
“This situation creates a dangerous legal vacuum, letting many employers break labor laws and pay their personnel inadequately,” Zverev said. “The establishment of the new organization is intended to fill this gap. We want the business that doesn’t obey legislation on salary and labor safety out.”
RUEFI is now on track to be included in the government’s Trilateral Commission, which consists of three parties – the government, the employers, and the trade unions. The commission collectively regulates labor issues in the industry.
“This is the top priority for us,” RUEFI President Sergey Timoshenko said in a statement. Timoshenko is also the chairman of The Union of Fishermen Entrepreneurs of Kamchatka.
A trilateral three-year agreement among all involved parties on salaries, education, employment, employees’ health protection, and resolving of social problems looks more likely with RUEFI's participation, Timoshenko said.
However, the agreement may be forestalled by tensions that have arisen after the government decided to change its rules for the allocation of crab quotas, which returned part of the quota to an auction-based system.
The VARPE’s website contains a comment on RUEFI’s founding which reads that “the top priority for the RUEFI is to become part of a trilateral commission and sign a trilateral agreement which will envisage that no law that can jeopardize the state of the fishery industry, is accepted without our involvement.”
That statement may require RUEFI to pursue action on the crab quotas before it comes to the bargaining table on a labor agreement.
