USSR Council of Ministers’ State Committee on Wage and Labor Questions, Standard Factory and Office Regulations Concerning Employees in State, Cooperative, and Public Enterprises and Establishments. January 12, 1957
Original Source: Sbornik zakonodatel’nykh aktov o trude (Moscow: Gosiurizdat, 1960), pp. 416-421.
I. General Provisions
1. In conformity with article 130 of the Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, every citizen of the USSR is obliged to observe labor discipline.
In the Soviet Union, labor discipline is based on the conscientious attitude of citizens toward work.
2. The purpose of factory and office regulations is to assure the strengthening of Socialist discipline of labor, the proper organization and the safe conditions of work, the full and efficient utilization of working time, the increase in productivity of labor, and the production of good quality merchandise.
II. Procedure for Hiring and Dismissing Employees
3. At the time of hiring, the management of the enterprise must demand from the new employee:
(a) The submission of his workbook see the Decision of December 20, 1937 and, if the employee is beginning his first job, the submission of a reference from the manager of the house in which he lives or from the village Council concerning his present status (e.g., student);
(b) the submission of a passport, in conformity with the law on passports.
It is not permitted to hire anyone who has not submitted these documents.
When the job calls for special training, the management may demand from the employee the submission of a diploma or other document attesting his graduation from a higher or secondary specialized educational institution.
Hiring is formalized by an order (directive) or by a record made by the management.
4. When an employee begins his new job, management is obliged:
(a) To explain to him his rights and duties, how he will be paid for his work, to acquaint him with his work, how he is to handle his lathe, machine, or tools;
(b) to acquaint him with factory or office work regulations, to’ instruct him in safety techniques, production sanitation, and fire prevention.
5. Persons beginning their first job must be given a workbook within 5 days after being hired.
Management must give a wage-record book to all employees 5 days after they are hired, if they are paid according to piece rates.
6. Dismissal is formalized by an order (directive) or by a record of dismissal made by the management.
7. Employees who desire to quit their jobs must give 2 weeks’ notice to the management of the enterprise or establishment. After the 2 weeks have passed, management does not have the right to hold up the settlement of wage accounts and the release of the employee desiring to quit.
8. On the day the employee is separated from his job, management must give him his workbook, in which has been noted his separation from the job, and settle accounts with him. At this time, the reason for separation must be noted (in the workbook) precisely in conformity with the provisions of effective labor legislation or with citation of the appropriate article (clause) of effective legislation.
III. Basic Obligations of Management and Employees
9. The management of an enterprise is obligated:
(a) To organize the work of employee properly, so that every employee will work according to his specialty and qualification;
(b) to supply the employee before he begins his new job–when regulations call for it–with work clothing, instruments, materials, and spare parts;
(c) to assign to every employee a definite working place, lathe, machine, etc.;
(d) to ensure the good condition of machines, lathes, and other equipment;
(e) to create conditions for every kind of growth of labor productivity, for the promotion of inventions by employees, for the wide dissemination of the experience of leading workers, for the acquisition of more than one trade by workers; to introduce technically determined work quotas, new techniques and technology, to modernize existing equipment, to mechanize arduous and labor-consuming work;
(f) to strengthen labor and production discipline;
(g) to observe the laws and regulations relating to the protection of labor, including the strict observance of the established routine of daily work, to implement the measures relating to safety techniques and production sanitation (to instruct employees on safe methods of work, to supply factory and office employees with drinking water, to equip washrooms and cloakrooms, to supply special work clothing, protective devices, etc.);
(h) to pay wages on fixed dates;
(i) to ensure a systematic rise in the work and business qualifications of factory and office employees;
(j) to adopt measures for improving the living conditions of employees, to consider carefully their needs and demands.
10. Employees are obliged:
(a) To work honestly and conscientiously;
(b) to observe labor discipline and factory and office regulations; to come to work on time; to put in a full day’s work; to utilize all the working time exclusively for production work and official duties; to execute promptly and accurately the instructions of management;
(c) to perform assigned or required work promptly and thoroughly; to fulfill work quotas and to try to overfulfill them; to observe technological discipline strictly, to permit no waste and to achieve high-quality results in work;
(d) to protect socialist property: machines, lathes, tools, materials, special work clothing, etc.;
(e) to observe fully the requirements of safety techniques, production sanitation, and fire prevention, as prescribed by applicable regulations and instructions, to use the issued special work clothing and protective devices;
(f) to keep one’s working place in order and clean, and also to maintain cleanliness in the workshop and on the grounds of the enterprise, and to pass on one’s workplace to the worker on the next shift in an orderly and clean condition.
IV. Working Time and Its Utilization
11. This article indicates that every enterprise or establishment will have fixed times for the beginning and closing of each shift, and for the meal break; as many as three shifts are indicated.
12. Where there are shifts, workers will take turns regularly. The change from one shift to another must, as a rule, take place every week.
13. The beginning and the end of work in an enterprise, and also the break in work, shall be announced by Whistles or other signals.
14. Every employee must sign in before beginning work, and sign out at the end of the workday, as prescribed by the enterprise .
15. Time boards and other means of recording arrivals and departures shall be available a half hour before the beginning of work and a half hour after close of work. Management is responsible for the accurate recording of arrivals and departures of workers.
There must be a clock in correct operation near the place of recording.
16. In enterprises where the work is continuous, an employee on one shift is forbidden to leave work before the arrival of the worker taking over his work on the next shift.
In case the worker scheduled to work on the next shift fails to appear, the employee on the job will inform his foreman who will immediately take steps to find someone to relieve the employee.
17. At jobs where breaks in work do not take place, employees must be allowed to eat on working time at designated places.
18. It is forbidden, during working time:
(a) To divert employees from their regular work, to summon or take them off their jobs for the purpose of performing public duties;
(b) to call general meetings, special meetings, or any type of conference on public matters.
V. Incentive Measures
19. Management will reward employees for conscientious and exemplary performance of their job requirements, for innovation in work, for inventions and efficiency suggestions, for length of service and irreproachable work in the same enterprise, and for other achievements in work.
20. The following incentive measures are established:
(a) An expression of appreciation?
(b) an award of an honorary certificate;
(c) the placing of the name in the book of honor, on the board of honor;
(d) the granting of the title of best worker in his type of job;
(e) a money award;
(f) an award of a valuable gift.
The awards will be made by the manager of the enterprise after agreement with the factory (or local) trade union committee.
The rewards will be announced in orders or directives and will be recorded in the employee’s workbook, as prescribed by regulations.
VI. Measures to Counter Violations of Labor Discipline
21. A violation of labor discipline entails a disciplinary penalty:
22. Management may impose the following disciplinary penalties for the violation of labor discipline:
(a) A warning (a formal recognition of the violation);
(b) a reprimand;
(c) a severe reprimand;
(d) the transfer of the employee to a lower paid job, or one with lesser responsibilities, for a period of up to 3 months.
The indicated disciplinary penalties are to be imposed by the manager of the enterprise, or by other responsible officials, a list of whom is approved by the ministry (department).
23. In case an employee is absent without a valid reason the manager of the enterprise will apply one of the following measures;
(a) The disciplinary penalties enumerated in article 22 of these regulations;
(b) the suspension for 3 months of the employee’s right to receive a percentage wage increment for length of service, or the reduction up to 2J> percent of the one-time reward for length of service in enterprises or establishments where wage increments and rewards for length of service are established;
(c) the dismissal of the employee with a note in his workbook that he was dismissed for being absent from work without a valid reason.
Absence (“progul”) means the nonappearance at work without a valid reason during the whole day of work.
Employees reporting to work in a drunken condition will be considered absent.
24. The manager of the enterprise has the right, at his discretion, not to use any one of the penalties prescribed in articles 22 and 23, but to transmit documents involving the violation of labor discipline to the comradely court for review the comradely court of 5 to 15 members is elected at a general meeting of employees in enterprises with at least 100 employees.
25. The penalties are to be imposed by management immediately upon the discovery of a violation.
The violator of labor discipline must be heard before a penalty is imposed.
Management must impose a penalty within a month from the day the violation has been discovered.
A disciplinary penalty cannot be imposed if 6 months have elapsed after the occurrence of the violation i.e., if the violation has not been discovered within 6 months.
26. Only one disciplinary penalty can apply to each violation of labor discipline.
27. The penalties are announced in orders or directives and are delivered to employees who must sign an acknowledgment of their receipt.
28. If for 1 year after the day of the imposition of the penalty, the employee shall receive no other disciplinary penalty, he shall be considered as not having undergone a disciplinary penalty.
29. If an employee has not committed an additional violation of labor discipline and has shown himself to be a good and conscientious worker, then the manager of the enterprise can issue an order (directive) canceling the penalty that had been imposed, without waiting for a year to pass.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Principal Current Soviet Labor Legislation: a compilation of documents (Washington: U.S. Dept. of Labor, 1962), p. 87.