Business refused to pay employees for the forced vacation

29% of companies have already sent the employees on an unpaid vacation, another 22% intend to do this in the nearest future, - this follows from the results of the monitoring conducted by the Center for Strategic Research, Finanz referred to.

21% of employers have reduced their salaries - that is every fifth company, and another 31% said they would do this soon. At the same time business representatives assure that these measurea are forced - 28% of respondents admitted that they were on the verge of bankruptcy. Companies lose up to 90% of their revenue and do not have the right not to pay taxes; and only the deferment is assumed. In addition, they are forced to pay rent.

The current situation threatens to blow up the labor market. To date, over 15 million people in the country — 20% of the total workforce — have remained unclaimed in large cities due to quarantine introduced there, as well as a decrease in demand for transportation.

4 million fellow citizens will lose their jobs in trade. The share of those employed in construction, logistics and services will account for one million cuts.

- We lost a lot of money, our prospects are deplorable. So the revolution was made in the past, the proletarian class, - Reuters quotes the words of the owner of the auto repair shop Daria Kaminsky.

Recall that the president promised to reduce insurance premiums for small businesses from 30% to 15%, and also gave a delay for paying taxes and, in some cases, for loan payments. However, according to business representatives, this will not help companies survive.

“A moratorium on rents that doesn’t exist will help us,” said Dmitry Volodin, co-owner of several bars in Moscow.

SME representatives wrote about massive bankruptcies in a petition to the government. The document was signed by more than 250 people.

“The Ministry of Finance of Russia literally sits on a mountain of money, while business goes bankrupt, and the population is impoverished,” the petition said.

The four largest Russian business associations - the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), the "Support of Russia" and "Business Russia" - sent an appeal to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin urging additional measures state support.

The letter says that almost everywhere in the country there is a shock stop of demand - enterprises curtail their activities, lose the ability to cover operating costs, pay taxes.

- At the same time, the main task of the Russian economy at the moment is to preserve jobs, which will help both avoid social tension and subsequently emerge from the pandemic, while maintaining the competitiveness of enterprises, the text of the RBC document cites .

Business associations offer to recognize as victims of the coronavirus not individual sectors of the economy, but enterprises engaged in all areas of economic activity, to radically reduce taxation on the payroll fund and provide companies with subsidies for paying two-thirds of the average monthly salary for the entire period of forced leave. In addition, the letter says that individual entrepreneurs without employees should be paid a monthly allowance of at least the minimum wage and exemption from payment of fixed contributions.

The authors of the appeal ask to extend the self-employed regime to all regions from May 1 and establish a single tax at a rate of 1%, consider the possibility of exempting companies from paying tax payments, as well as subsidizing rental payments, leasing and loans.

While the acute phase of the crisis will continue, the four business associations are proposing to reduce the period for warning employees about dismissal and the period for paying the average salary to employees who are not employed. It is also proposed to return to enterprises up to 30% of accident insurance contributions.

According to the head of IAC “Alpari” Alexander Razuvayev, those who invested in jobs suffered.

- Those who suffered all the previous years, who invested all profits, and even loans in development, and consequently in the creation of new jobs and the growth of the tax base, suffered most from the business.

Those who paid the “white” salaries and did not run from taxes suffered the most. The winners were those who worked “in the gray,” withdrew money into a penny and can now simply live on a percentage of the deposit, ”said Razuvaev.

According to Senator Vyacheslav Markhaev, the regime of universal self-isolation introduced in Russia will be detrimental to small and medium-sized businesses, and many of its representatives will not survive the measures. The senator points out that the authorities intentionally do not introduce a state of emergency in order to avoid the inevitable payment of material damage to victims.

Makhraev emphasizes that unwillingness to pay salaries to employees is not a consequence of the greed of businessmen.

- Many Internet resources report a large number of complaints against employers who, in violation of the decree of the head of state, do not save employees salaries, but offer to go on unpaid leave or quit. But in this case, the problem is not the greed of employers, but the lack of security and safety of their own business. The condition for the preservation of wages for employees cannot be ensured with a massive decrease in gross revenue and the absence of activity as such, the senator notes.