City Hall: Out-of-Town Workers Must Register
By Robin Munro
Staff Writer
Russians who live beyond the city limits, including in the Moscow region, must get permission from City Hall to work in the capital, according to a new order that came into force last week.
The city already regulates foreigners who work in the city, but the new order covers out-of-town Russian citizens, including many who travel to their workplaces from the Moscow region.
Vedomosti on Monday quoted the migration service of the Interior Ministry as saying that about 1 million people, or one-sixth of the city's workforce, are Russians from outside the capital.
The move may do more than inconvenience everyday workers. It may also perturb the federal government, which is pursuing membership in the World Trade Organization.
"Liberalization of the labor market is one of the conditions of joining the WTO," Oleg Yeremeyev, the director of the coordinating council of United Employers of Russia, was quoted as saying in Vedomosti.
In accordance with the law on foreigners that came into effect last year, City Hall has created a commission to consider applications to hire foreigners in the city and whether the jobs they are intended to perform could be carried out by a Muscovite.
In City Hall's order of July 29, which came into force Aug. 6, when considering quotas for allowing people to work in the city, the number of Russians who are not registered in Moscow is to be taken into account, just as the number of foreigners is.
It is not yet clear what the commission will require employers to do or why a commission set up to fulfill the law on foreigners should concern itself with Russian citizens.
Those wanting to employ foreigners must supply 11 documents with each application for a work permit, including ones showing, for instance, registration with the tax authorities, that taxes have been paid and that the worker lives in a home that meets health regulations.
The commission of 32 city officials headed by Deputy Mayor Valery Shantsev is required to process applications within 15 days of receiving them.
Employers who hire people without the commission's approval face fines of 500 to 1,000 rubles ($16 to $32), and repeat offenders risk being barred from running a business from one to three years.
Moscow is a migration hub for Russians, as well as for foreigners from the former Soviet Union and further abroad. City Hall controls their arrival through a much-criticized registration scheme, which human rights groups say fosters a system of extortion and bribery as well as unjust treatment for outsiders.
The response to the scheme has been to create a market for agencies that supply registrations to out-of-towners.
Thousands of migrant workers live in the Moscow region, where it is cheaper than in the city proper but takes much longer to travel to work.
Maria Demicheva, lawyer at Bech-Bruun Dragsted, said the commission existed before and has been reinstated to deal with the new law on foreigners.
City Hall's order is still unclear, and attempts to clarify what is meant by the reference to out-of-towners could have small or big consequences for employers, Demicheva said Monday.
"Within a month's time it will be clear what the exact powers of the commission are. The officials don't know themselves exactly what its role will be," she said. "For example, it does not specify whether a particular employer should go to the commission and ask for permission or whether the commission would itself check employers."
Asked if it could mean Russians from beyond the capital will be required to get work permits, Demicheva said that any Russian citizen required to do so would have a good chance of winning a court case against City Hall.
The Constitution guarantees the right of freedom of movement, she said.
Natalya Podolskaya, lawyer with the European Business Club, which has a task force that deals with issues raised by the law on foreigners, said the Moscow law appears to breach the Constitution.
"The commission should not regulate activities of Russians," she said. "It should just be a statistical process about saying how many Russian citizens from outside Moscow are employed."
However, laws on work permits are vague, saying merely that any work permit should be done in accordance with laws of the local authorities.
Regulations to accompany the law on foreigners were introduced much later than the law, which came into force Nov. 1 last year. As a result, there are large backlogs of people seeking permits. It seems unlikely, Podolskaya said, that Shantsev's commission will be able to meet its 15-day processing time.
"Shantsev's commission will become another barrier to employers that will cost time and money," Podolskaya said.
Meanwhile, Ekho Moskvy radio reported that Labor Minister Alexander Pochinok expressed surprise when told of the inclusion of non-Muscovite Russians in the Moscow law. He said he doubted whether it was correct.
Commenting on a report in Gazeta, Pochinok described it as expressing the view of one lawyer who showed that the order contradicts the Constitution.
The Moscow city prosecutor's office said Monday that it intends to check media reports about the new law.
"In the course of the investigation we will check the veracity of the reports on the law and also how it complies with federal legislation," acting city prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev told Interfax.
Imagine being treated as a foreigner if you live in the suburbs.
I think some US cities have found ways to fuck the suburbanites as well. It's called a city income tax. If you work in the city you pay it. It doesn't matter that you don't actually live in the city they still tax you because that's where your job is.
By the pricking of my thumb,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks.
Tsyroc wrote:I think some US cities have found ways to fuck the suburbanites as well. It's called a city income tax. If you work in the city you pay it. It doesn't matter that you don't actually live in the city they still tax you because that's where your job is.
Philadelphia has that, though they called it a wage tax for political reasons. However the most recent mayor pushed through a change that significantly drops the tax for out of city workers. Its still stupid with the cities economy in such awful shape.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
Montcalm wrote:What kind of fucked-up city is Moscow,making people ask permission to work in the freaking place.
It's the capital city of a nation which has only been a non-totalitarian state for maybe 20 years in the past 400. Give them time, they'll get the hang of it eventually.
"I am gravely disappointed. Again you have made me unleash my dogs of war."
--The Lord Humungus
Montcalm wrote:What kind of fucked-up city is Moscow,making people ask permission to work in the freaking place.
It's the capital city of a nation which has only been a non-totalitarian state for maybe 20 years in the past 400. Give them time, they'll get the hang of it eventually.
In the meantime, I'll stay here till things settle down a bit.
Pablo Sanchez wrote:
It's the capital city of a nation which has only been a non-totalitarian state for maybe 20 years in the past 400. Give them time, they'll get the hang of it eventually.
*falls dead from laughing his ass off at the stupidity of that statement*
Go read Gulag Archipelago...tells you how the Tsars were not totalitarian
assholes....compared to the Bolsheviks...
In 1902, because he refused to forward a protest of hers,
she ripped the shoulder boards off his uniform. And
the result was that a military investigator came and
apologized profusely to Figner for the ignoramus superintendent!
....
The Tsarist jailers were still inexperienced. They got nervous
if one of their prisoners went on a hunger strike; they exclaimed
over it; they looked after him; they put him in the hospital. There
are many examples, but this work is not about them. It is even
humorous to note that it was enough for Valentinov to go on a
hunger strike for twelve days: as a result, he not only achieved
some relaxation in the regimen but was totally released from in-
terrogation—whereupon he went to Lenin in Switzerland. Even
in the Orel central hard-labor prison the strikers always won.
They got the regimen relaxed in 1912 and further relaxed in
1913, to the point of general access to outdoor walks for all
political hard-labor prisoners—who were obviously so unre-
stricted by their supervisors that they managed to compose and
send out to freedom their appeal "to the Russian people." (And
this from the hard-labor prisoners of a central prison!) Further-
more, it was <I>published</I>. (It's enough to make one's eyes pop out
of one's head! Someone has to have been crazy! ) It was published
in 1914 in issue No. 1 of the Vestnik Katargi i Ssylki—the Hard-
Labor and Exile Herald.
All three volumes are full of examples like this, along with sarcastic
commentary...
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong
"The present air situation in the Pacific is entirely the result of fighting a fifth rate air power." - U.S. Navy Memo - 24 July 1944
Tsyroc wrote:I think some US cities have found ways to fuck the suburbanites as well. It's called a city income tax. If you work in the city you pay it. It doesn't matter that you don't actually live in the city they still tax you because that's where your job is.
Philadelphia has that, though they called it a wage tax for political reasons. However the most recent mayor pushed through a change that significantly drops the tax for out of city workers. Its still stupid with the cities economy in such awful shape.
Certain members of the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco want to pass an income tax, even Fremont where I used to live talked about it. It never amazes me when politicians think it is a good idea to pass an income tax in an area people already cant afford to live in.
Pablo Sanchez wrote:
It's the capital city of a nation which has only been a non-totalitarian state for maybe 20 years in the past 400. Give them time, they'll get the hang of it eventually.
*falls dead from laughing his ass off at the stupidity of that statement*
Go read Gulag Archipelago...tells you how the Tsars were not totalitarian
assholes....compared to the Bolsheviks...
*snip*
Is there a point to this? You're saying that the Tsars (or the Emperors, to be more precise, since the rulers of Russia were known as Emperors since the time of Peter the Great (yet westeners continue to label them tsars)) were not totalitarian? True. But were they authoritarian? Hell yes. While he may have used the wrong term, he is still correct, Russia has been under a dictatorial government for at least the past 400 years, either under the autocratic Romanovs, or the totalitarian Communists.
Simon H.Johansen wrote:
That's like saying that Mussolini wasn't as nasty as Hitler.
Actually he wasn't, when Hitler wanted to start rounding up Jews Italy and Italian control territory in the Balkans Mussolini told him to go to hell.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
Ha! Yout think you have stupid laws in Russia. There was a site (maybe somebody can find it again) that had some really stupid laws on the books here in the US.
Somethings along the lines as you can't walk your pet elephant down the street during the hours of Sunday mass or detonating a nuclear device in city limits, or some such nonesense.
Damn...wish I could remember that site. It also had stupid laws in others countries to I believe.
otter wrote:Ha! Yout think you have stupid laws in Russia. There was a site (maybe somebody can find it again) that had some really stupid laws on the books here in the US.
Somethings along the lines as you can't walk your pet elephant down the street during the hours of Sunday mass or detonating a nuclear device in city limits, or some such nonesense.
Damn...wish I could remember that site. It also had stupid laws in others countries to I believe.
I think this is the one you talk about.Stupid Laws
Jerry Orbach 1935 2004 Admiral Valdemar~You know you've fucked up when Wacky Races has more realistic looking vehicles than your own.
If we're lucky, we might see signs of more serious reform once the "old guard" dies out and gets replaced by first and second generation post-Soviets.
That's the wrong way to tickle Mary, that's the wrong way to kiss!
Don't you know that, over here lad, they like it best like this!
Hooray, pour les français! Farewell, Angleterre!
We didn't know how to tickle Mary, but we learnt how, over there!
otter wrote:Ha! Yout think you have stupid laws in Russia. There was a site (maybe somebody can find it again) that had some really stupid laws on the books here in the US.
Somethings along the lines as you can't walk your pet elephant down the street during the hours of Sunday mass or detonating a nuclear device in city limits, or some such nonesense.
Damn...wish I could remember that site. It also had stupid laws in others countries to I believe.
I think this is the one you talk about.Stupid Laws
otter wrote:Ha! Yout think you have stupid laws in Russia. There was a site (maybe somebody can find it again) that had some really stupid laws on the books here in the US.
Somethings along the lines as you can't walk your pet elephant down the street during the hours of Sunday mass or detonating a nuclear device in city limits, or some such nonesense.
Damn...wish I could remember that site. It also had stupid laws in others countries to I believe.
I think this is the one you talk about.Stupid Laws
