Carrot, sticks and the law... How Russians are forced to get vaccinated against covid

The population, accustomed only to the not very successful popularization of a healthy lifestyle and excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol, did not have time to come to their senses, as employers picked up the baton.

Victoria Pavlova

And now already the workers of Norilsk Nickel are promised to cancel vacations for refusing to vaccinate, in Mosgaz - to deprive unvaccinated employees of the bonus, and in some cases people without vaccination are even threatened with dismissal.

Everything is in the best traditions of state directive management: laws and decrees alone are not enough. It is necessary to “lower” any initiative down the hierarchical ladder, directly to the enterprises and their employees. The methodology is familiar and worked out during important public holidays and elections. If you want to work calmly without unnecessary checks from the prosecutor's office and other supervisory bodies - be so kind as to ensure the attendance at the expense of your employees at holiday rallies, elections and other events that create an image of well-being. This is how the most absurd excesses take place, turning any idea upside down.

In the case of covid, the situation is especially tense: after all, employers are also interested in ensuring that employees do not fall out of the work process, leaving for sick leave for a long time. So you can get into the taste by introducing additional incentives for subordinates so that they take more care of their health. Novye Izvestia talked with experts and tried to figure out why such imbalances appear, what to do with them, and what other "whips" from employers to prepare for.

Coercion by law

No matter how unpleasant it may be for opponents of vaccination against COVID-19, but the coercive measures are quite consistent with the current laws and the Constitution. Even professional lawyers note this. Ekaterina Tyagai , a lawyer and partner of the Pen & Paper Bar Association, confirms that even a refusal to hospitalize the unvaccinated can have a legal justification.

- The program of state guarantees for the provision of medical care, incl. the list of types, forms and conditions for the provision of free medical care is approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation for a certain period. In an emergency and / or in the event of a threat of the spread of diseases that pose a danger to others, the Government of the Russian Federation has the right to establish the specifics of the implementation of the basic compulsory health insurance program.

And the doctor, executive director of the ORBI Stroke Foundation, neurologist Alexander Komarov points out that the anticoid restrictions established by the law are mild, simply known, and we do not know about the rest.

- Stopping the planned hospitalization of the unvaccinated is a preventive, not limiting factor. It's okay, we don't take a child unvaccinated against polio, measles or diphtheria to kindergarten, do we? What is the difference? And this practice is not new. Look at the order of the Department of Healthcare - patients who do not have anti-measles antibodies or do not have a GVC vaccine are not allowed to routine medical care and cannot be hospitalized even for examinations and diagnostics. This is about measles, not about covid.

In general, the Government prepared the basis for compulsory care of the health of individuals and society as a whole, and then everyone began to realize the opportunities and responsibilities of whoever is in what.

Carrot and stick for employees of Russian companies

There are companies that operate using the carrot method. Let someone get crumbs, and someone - a whole wide-format "Tula gingerbread", but still this is a method of encouragement. For example, AvtoVAZ will pay employees 1,500 rubles for vaccination, Russia Today - 57,500 rubles for those who have time to get vaccinated before July 10, the Novosibirsk Semiconductor Plant will issue bonuses of 4,000 rubles each, employees of Azbuka Vkus are given paid weekends on vaccination days. But this happens mainly in those industries where competition for workers is high. Others prefer the whip method. Especially at the city-forming enterprises.

The first reports of coercion to vaccinate appeared last winter. Only employees of medical and educational organizations, the sphere of social services were obliged to vaccinate. But even then, for example, the state-owned company Russian Railways intended to vaccinate all employees of the transport network and employees of its own medical institutions in 3-4 months. Most often, this practice, and even with the use of threats, was resorted to by companies in the oil and gas sector, for which a significant part of the employees work on a rotational basis at a decent distance from civilization. For such companies, vaccination is an opportunity to save money on two-week observation of shift workers. People complained that employers, in particular Surgutneftegaz , threatened to de-bonuses for refusing to vaccinate. In some cases, it even went as far as threats of dismissal from the employer and complaints to the governor from employees.

In the Tyumen and Sverdlovsk branches of the Megamart trading network, they promised to shift fines for insufficient vaccination to employees, depriving them of incentive payments. Mosgaz also distinguished itself, although it does not have any shift workers - the leadership promised to dismiss the vaccine refuseniks in January 2021. And in "Norilsk Nickel", in addition to the deprivation of bonuses, they also came up with the idea of depriving refuseniks of their summer vacation . Even the human rights ombudsman in the Russian Federation, Tatyana Moskalkova, confirmed the fact of massive discrimination against unvaccinated employees. And often, as in the cases described above, this is the initiative of the employers themselves. No one " Norilsk Nickel " legally obliged to vaccinate workers.

The law is formally on the side of the employees. Rostrud has already explained that for refusing to vaccinate, one cannot deprive a person of the premium in the same way as denying an annual leave according to the schedule. It is possible to suspend from work without pay if there is a duty to have a vaccine, but to force people to work for free is not. But who cares about any laws, if even the officials themselves violate them and set a clear example for the rest? The governor of the Rostov region, Vasily Golubev, promised to transfer all unvaccinated officials to remote work and deprive them of incentive payments and bonuses. Similar measures are applied in the Krasnodar City Hall.

As a result, it seems that entrepreneurs have a completely free hand. They want to - and get fired for refusing to get a flu shot or eating too much junk food to reduce sick days.

What happened to employers: are they insolent or cornered?

However, there is another side to the coin. Business is also not always free to make decisions. As noted by the public ombudsman for labor protection in Moscow, Dmitry Porochkin , the reason for everything is the cane system and the lack of adequate motivation for entrepreneurs.

- We always have a cane, compulsory system in relation to business. Didn't send people for vaccination - get a fine. Why not take a different route and motivate entrepreneurs to send employees for vaccinations? For some reason, apartments, cars, money are raffled for the population, but for business - only a stick. If, for example, a business has instilled 100% of its employees, then give a privilege on taxes, on deductions to the FSS, to the MHIF. If I, as an entrepreneur, managed to convince my employees to take a root, give me some kind of privilege for this. Why should I pay a fine? Last year, when they were quarantined, there were motivational tools to support business in the form of writing off part of the loans and other measures, it would be good if now there are also such tools.

Alexander Saversky, President of the League for the Protection of Patients, a member of the Expert Council under the Government of the Russian Federation, believes that the authorities often go too far , and entrepreneurs should not follow their lead, but defend their interests.

- Employers in this situation should, firstly, hire lawyers to torpedo actions that threaten their workers, and secondly, negotiate with trade unions, maybe even illegally, that they begin to raise a storm, and employers simply do not bother them and begin to fulfill their requirements.

The further you go, the more you have to pay

Fear, lack of understanding of the situation, the obligation to fulfill the plan - officials may have many reasons to increase the personal responsibility of citizens for their own and public health. Fedot Tumusov , deputy, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Health Protection, reassures and promises that the vicious practice of the "stick" will not get further spread.

- Now the world is in a state of war, when every day people die from covid, and in order to win the war, measures are taken that are not good in themselves. These measures have only one goal - to save the country as a whole, so that the situation does not become unmanageable. But as soon as we defeat this disease, I hope that everything will be normalized and there will be no such inclinations.

However, conversations about personal responsibility appear with enviable consistency. And they make statements at completely different levels. The Deputy Mayor of Moscow Anastasia Rakova proposed introducing financial liability for those who do not take care of their health, the Russian Orthodox Church is advocating for removing abortions from the compulsory medical insurance system. According to doctors, monetary incentives can well stimulate health care. Alexander Komarov even advocates the introduction of direct taxes on medicine:

- These 13% of our personal income tax are withdrawn from the employer, regardless of whether he adheres to a healthy lifestyle or does not follow, undergoes medical examination or does not pass, smokes / does not smoke, drinks / does not drink, plays sports or not. The employer is forced to do this because we have indirect taxes. The patient is absolutely parallel to his health, he says - our medicine is free. It is free because employers have to pay for patients regardless of their lifestyle. A very good example is provided by OSAGO - there are multiplying coefficients, with the help of which insurers determine: if you drive, it's not a problem, drive, but pay more. So in health insurance, you need a method of increasing and decreasing coefficients, a carrot and a carrot.

Covid has created a powerful framework for redefining attitudes towards health for both people and their employers. Obviously, there is a growing trend that Russian citizens will bear increasing responsibility for their refusal to independently monitor their well-being. Most likely - in a ruble. The only question is how much the officials will go too far and explain to the population exactly how we should take care of our own health, and how zealously entrepreneurs and ordinary citizens will defend their rights at the same time, so that health care is not swallowed up by concern about the state treasury.