WORLD WORLDWIDE RUSSIA UKRAIN WAR News Journal Update - (en) Rossia, AIT: Getting closer to chaos? (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The military conflict between the Russian and Ukrainian capitalist oligarchy has

been going on for a year and a quarter, and there is no end in sight. The parties
are still not going to stop hostilities. Meanwhile, the further, the more their
consequences are felt in the economic and labor spheres of both countries. ----
"Is there no one to work because of the war?" - the Kharkiv site "Assembly" asks
a question. He notes that more and more enterprises in Ukraine feel the
aggravation of problems with the search for personnel. According to the results
of a regular all-Ukrainian survey of the business environment from the NGO
Institute for Economic Research and Political Consultations, in April the share
of enterprises that experienced a shortage of qualified workers increased to
26.9% from 19.9% in March. There were even fewer entrepreneurs who said that it
was easy for them to find unskilled personnel: from 7% to 4.9%. Businesses are in
no rush to add staff, targeting only 5.6% headcount growth compared to 8.3% in
March. More than 91% did not expect changes in employment (in March there were
88.3% of such changes). This also applies to the Kharkiv region. On May 3, it was
reported that the Kharkiv City Employment Center for several weeks could not find
a tractor driver with a trailer for one of the enterprises for 30 thousand
hryvnias per month. Potential applicants are either already in the army, or try
not to go outside again. "I wanted to launch an enterprise in the construction
industry in Valki, which had been idle throughout the war. I can't find workers
because all men are afraid of mobilization. We have been looking for drivers for
a month, no one wants to drive through checkpoints," an unnamed businessman said
at the same time in the media.

According to Alexander Chumak, head of the Association of Private Employers,
among the members of this organization in the Kharkiv region there are several
companies that have lost three-quarters of their staff due to mobilization. And
they can't find anyone in return, some are already trying to look for workers
under 27 and over 55 years old.

The workers told the comrades from the "Assembly" about the methods that people
began to resort to when handing over the summons: you go to donate blood for the
wounded and you get a release for that day. You can donate blood every 2 months.

For the same reasons to avoid conscription, those liable for military service
refuse to register the status of unemployed. The Kharkiv Regional Employment
Center has calculated that almost 75% of the registered unemployed this year are
women. Out of 7,900 registered women, only 3,200 men, i.e. only 28%. There have
always been more women on the labor exchange, but not so much: for example, in
2021 they accounted for 61% of the unemployed.

The number of resumes in Kharkiv region exceeds the number of vacancies by 8
times. For comparison, in mid-2022, 19 people applied for the vacancy, and the
year before last, six. But the desire of the bosses is unchanged: to be worked on
for three, receiving less than one before the war. The employment service admits
that only 11% of vacancies provide for a salary above 15 thousand hryvnia per
month, and 61% - up to 9 thousand hryvnia. The reluctance to raise salaries is
explained by the devastation and recession of the economy - they say, the
turnover of the companies is not at all the same. Staff turnover, especially high
in the shadow sector, leads to the fact that the authorities are constantly
looking for people - this is partly the reason for the increase in the number of
vacancies. On both sides of the front line, the war is increasingly worsening the
situation of the workers, enriching the bourgeois class

Earlier, the site reported that the fall in industrial production in the Kharkiv
region in 2022 amounted to 40%. If in the first months of the war more than 80%
of the enterprises of the Kharkiv region stopped, then after the withdrawal of
Russian troops from almost the entire region, business (primarily small) began to
return to work. Work.ua has been reporting a monthly increase in the number of
new vacancies in the Kharkiv region by 20% or a little more since autumn. In the
first quarter of the year, their number grows traditionally and is associated
with seasonal processes, but the numbers themselves are now many times less than
even in 2021 with its lockdowns. Sending the unemployed to the "Army of Recovery"
does not solve the problem - wages at the minimum wage do not at all correspond
to its severity.

   "Such a salary can and does suit those who do not need to rent housing, who
are not left without anything, like us, and we have nowhere to return. I have
migrant's payments - 2000 hryvnias. I am alone with two children. And here there
is a choice: either socially useful work from morning to evening, or the search
for humanitarian aid, but everything is needed. And to pay for housing, and this
is 4000 UAH. I refused. I was deregistered. I am looking for a normal job," says
Valeria, a displaced person from the Luhansk region. And the locals are also not
particularly happy with this case: "The salary is just a song, as they say, do
not deny yourself anything. All paths lead either to the Armed Forces of Ukraine,
or to a salary of 6700 hryvnias, why pay more when empires have been built on
free labor at all times...," said Maxim from Kharkiv.

The lack of labor force hinders the work of enterprises, and this applies to both
the search for qualified and the search for unskilled workers. Some professions,
such as tractor drivers or mechanics, could indeed be made scarce by
mobilization, but in other cases it is more likely that citizens simply avoid
getting formal jobs. Kharkiv enterprises report such a practice: in order to
fulfill the conscription plan and at the same time maintain the core of the
personnel, a vacancy is posted, the person who came to work reports his data, he
is legally handed a summons and sent to the army, and the enterprise (which, as
you know, is no longer obliged to pay salaries to those mobilized) places a
vacancy again. It seems that this is largely due to the growth in the number of
vacancies )

The situation is no better in other regions of Ukraine. So, for example, in
Zaporozhye city transport has lost half of the drivers because of the war. About
40% of drivers were mobilized into the army, and about 10% fled abroad. According
to Vladimir Sukhachev, Director of Zaporozhelectrotrans for financial and
economic issues, more than 800 buses of private carriers used the routes of the
regional center every day before the war, now there are about 530. First of all,
this is due to a shortage of drivers. There is also a shortage of public
transport drivers, especially trams and trolleybuses. They are very difficult to
find, since there are few institutions left in Ukraine that train such
specialists (https://t.me/black_book_of_capitalism/7665).

In Kharkiv and Kherson regions, teachers have not been paid for six months. The
Government of Ukraine announced the allocation of UAH 14.5 million for the needs
of these regions. But it is clear that teachers will be given a penny, and
obviously not in six months. Not much to say about summer holidays. Their
teachers will see in January next year. And this is at best
(https://t.me/black_book_of_capitalism/7674)

In early spring, the Assembly reported that, at least in Kharkiv, there were
fewer raids with the delivery of subpoenas to enterprises, linking this to the
fact that it had become more difficult to book workers. On January 27, the
government approved the procedure for booking those liable for military service.
However, Ukrainian enterprises began to be afraid to submit lists to the military
registration and enlistment offices for booking workers because of the likelihood
of receiving a pack of summonses to the front instead of armor. In addition, it
is also necessary to prove that the enterprise generally has the right to reserve
personnel from mobilization, and this opens up wide opportunities for corruption
due to different interpretations of the norms: for example, if some criteria are
available, but some other is not met. The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine
clarified that heads of enterprises and their deputies, employees of enterprises
of the fuel and energy complex are subject to booking. For the rest - no more
than 50% of the number of those liable for military service, and if you need
more, you need to provide a "justification". In general, the booking period is
not more than 6 months. For the entire period of hostilities, only employees of
state authorities and local self-government can receive a deferment. In addition
to the expiration of the term, they can take the reservation in case of
completion of the mobilization order, liquidation of the enterprise or dismissal
from it - in order to prevent fictitious employment, enterprises must update the
report on the number of booked quarterly.

Of course, the impossibility of going to work and the possibility of handing over
a disloyal employee to the military registration and enlistment office severely
affects working conditions. Wars have always been used by the ruling classes in
order, under their cover, to intensify the exploitation of wage laborers and
deprive them of their already meager rights.

The mobilization is washing out the scarce labor force from the villages, the
lack of which is one of the difficulties for the Ukrainian sowing season this
spring. It is almost impossible for a simple farmer to get a reservation, unlike
large agricultural corporations. It takes years to prepare a replacement for a
machine operator.

Meanwhile, the saga continues with students who cannot go abroad to study. They
began preventing the exit of this category of conscripts back in the summer of
last year, and since September the border has been completely closed for them.
This was due to fraudulent schemes, when far from the youngest people left the
country using fictitious documents for entering a foreign university or simply
paying for the first semester. Nevertheless, real applicants also faced the ban,
and even those who studied in other countries before the war, then for some
reason visited Ukraine. A number of students went to appeal the refusals of the
border guards, and the courts of first instance most often recognize the refusals
as unlawful. But they still fail to leave, although there is a delay from
mobilization sudov/)

In Russia, the situation in the economic and social sphere is also not happy. We
have already talked more than once about how entrepreneurs use the state of
military conflict as an excuse to "tighten the screws", not pay the money they
earn or suppress the dissatisfaction of workers. Although there is no official
general mobilization (unlike in Ukraine), the shortage of labor is also growing.
35% of Russian enterprises experience shortage of personnel. There has not been
such a record shortage of workers in the country for more than a quarter of a
century. Poll of the Institute for Economic Policy. Gaidar recorded a record
level of shortage of workers in Russian industry since 1996. In April,
representatives of 35% of enterprises announced a shortage of workers.

Worst of all is the situation with workers in light industry. The absence of
secondary specialized educational institutions that would train workers with the
qualifications they need also has an effect. After the imposition of sanctions
and the departure of brands, both expensive and mass, the market was freed. But
there is simply no one to produce Russian products that could take it
(https://novostimb.ru/news/2023/05/18/35-rossijskix-predpriyatij-ispytyvayut-kadrovyj-golod.html).

It seems, however, that both the "partial" mobilization and the flight from it of
those who do not rush to the front are having an effect. This was discussed last
fall. Among ordinary employees, the percentage of those mobilized did not exceed
10%, according to a study by Kontakt InterSearch. At the same time, the migration
outflow after September 21 amounted to several hundred thousand people. "Although
it seems to be a small part of the labor force, which is about 75 million people,
mobilization and migration outflow are exacerbating the already existing shortage
of personnel where it was formed even before - for example, construction,
agriculture, transport, services," noted Olga Belenkaya, Head of the Department
of Macroeconomic Analysis of FG "Finam" )

In the meantime, as is usual in wars, the duration of the conflict and the
further disruption of world economic ties that it causes are superimposed on
ordinary mismanagement. One example: in the Crimea, the leading Sevastopol Marine
Plant was threatened with closure. A new director has been appointed there, who
also manages a number of other organizations, most of which have been declared
bankrupt or liquidated. Earlier, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov
said that part of the plant's territory would be given over for development. In
October 2022, the former director of Sevmorzavod expressed concern that he would
not be able to retain the workforce due to a lack of orders. He also noted that
the company is losing orders at tenders to find contractors due to lack of
experience
(https://ru.krymr.com/a/sevmorzavod-zhdet-bankrotstvo-i-snos/32428696.html)

https://aitrus.info/node/6086
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