Elmira Zaripova: “We are not going to retrain an engineer to become a janitor”

Four vacancies per one unemployed person

As a priority task of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Republic of Tatarstan in the framework of the pilot project on the public formation of the goals and objectives of the executive bodies of state power and public control over their implementation, Minister Elmira Zaripova called “preventing the growth of official unemployment over 1,5 per cent” and specified that this goal is quite achievable.

“The situation in the labour market is quite stable, we have a 0,56 per cent unemployment rate, 0,24 people for a job, that is, we can offer up to four vacancies to each unemployed person,” the minister told the members of the Public Council. “11,340 people are registered as unemployed, and at the same time, we see 47,000 offers in the bank of vacancies in Tatarstan.”

Later, answering the question of the correspondent of Realnoe Vremya, who asked to clarify why the real unemployment rate exceeds the official five times, she explained that the employment centres, according to which the official unemployment rates are determined, deal mainly with those who, for certain reasons, cannot find a job individually — these are people of pre-retirement age, people without work experience, disabled people, mothers with many children, women on maternity leave, etc. The rest, in her opinion, perfectly cope with this task on their own — mainly through the Internet.

To young people — jobs

The second most important task the minister of labour called the support of young professionals in finding a job. Now the share of graduates among unemployed residents of the republic is, again, according to official data, 5%, but by the end of the year it is planned to reduce to 3%, and not due to that young professionals find a job themselves in the remaining time.

Zaripova said that in the second quarter of 2019 — that is, after receiving diplomas — 283 graduates applied to the employment centres of the republic. Out of them, 116 people were employed, and 16 were lucky to be among the participants of the state programme “Promotion of employment in the Republic of Tatarstan for 2014-2025”. It provides reimbursement to employers of a part of expenses for payment of labour to temporarily employed by the directions of the centres of employment of graduates of vocational educational institutions and universities, as well as the payment of their financial support.

When the correspondent of Realnoe Vremya asked how they are addressing the issue of employment of young workers who was trained, became specialists, but cannot find a job that would provide them with a more or less decent existence due to that employers pay them no more than the official minimum, Elmira Zaripova explained that one of the options for residents of Kazan, who have such problems, can be a job in other regions, including the work on a rotating basis.

She also listed the companies where young people are always welcomed:

“Metroelektrotrans MUE, Kazan Aircraft Production Association, Vakuummash JSC, Almetyevsk Pipe Plant, Zelenodolsk Shipyard JSC, Pozis, TAIF-NK PSC, Chelny Kholod, Kvart JSC, Tatneft PJSC, Bugulma PTS (Heating Network Enterprise), Chemical Plant Karpov, Vostokneftespetsmontazh PLC in Aznakaevo.”

To elderly — training

A new task for the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection is to help to retrain the employees of pre-retirement age in the framework of the pilot project because the retirement age has been increased. In the report on the meeting of the Public Council, and later in the report to the reporters, Elmira Zaripova said that they were not talking about that an experienced and competent engineer, teacher, etc., as a result would be retrained to become, relatively speaking, a guard, cook or janitor, by preparing them for low-skilled labour, at the end of their employment career.

The minister of labour, employment and social protection said that within the framework of retraining programmes, for example, the Kazan airport trains its pre-pensioners to profiling — to identify people in the flow of passengers who are prone to commit socially dangerous, inadequate acts.

“Today, Nefis Cosmetics has declared that it will retrain its 30 pre-pensioners, KAMAZ — more than 300 people, Maysky state farm, Kazan Motor Production Association, Kazan Aircraft Production Association, Kazan Helicopters,” Elmira Zaripova listed. “That is, all large employers who understand that for them it is an opportunity to reduce their costs. Someone installed new equipment, someone added a new production cycle — for them it is an opportunity to improve the skills of employees.”

“We have performance goal — 1,351, but in fact we will retrain 4,300 pre-pensioners, and today more than 2,000 have already been retrained,” the minister specified. “In addition to those who go in the direction of employers, pre-pensioners who work can apply through employment centres and they will be offered, based on the labour market, some specialties related to their professions.”

The project is one — tasks are many

A separate set of issues, which the pilot project covers, is associated with the notorious increase in the targeting of social support. The figures given at the meeting of the Public Council show that the degree of targeting of support has significantly increased — now it is received by the most needy.

“The amount of funds received by really needy families has also increased,” assured Elmira Zaripova, “from 75 to 78 per cent. Since January 2020, the budget funds from the introduction of the criteria of need (that is, saved on those who are in need has been recently excluded — editor’s note) will provide additional measures of social support to families with children whose per capita income is below the subsistence minimum.”

Also, among the objectives of the pilot project is to increase the coverage of pensioners with sanatorium treatment on preferential terms (from 15% to 25%, from among those who applied for permits), comprehensive rehabilitation of disabled people (increase in coverage from 55,5% to 56,5%, and disabled children — from 68,3% to 69,3%), reducing the level of occupational injuries from 0,65 to 0,6 per thousand workers and preserving the family for children in difficult situations (increase in the proportion of children leaving shelters to families from 90% to 92%).