The Politics of Labor Code Reform in Putin’s Russia

The recent announcement of a merger between the pro-Kremlin Unity party and Yuri Luzhkov's Fatherland movement (arguably the foremost anti-Kremlin force in the 1999 Duma campaign) was viewed by knowledgeable observers in the context of the Putin administration's efforts to prevent an impending crisis in the Duma over the issue that starkly divided the two parties–reform of the labor code. During the last several months, labor legislation has emerged as one of the most controversial and divisive subjects at the top of the political agenda. The government, while enjoying a comfortable majority on most other issues in the generally docile Duma, barely escaped defeat on the labor code in December 2000, and has had every reason for concern about the forthcoming debate over this legislation this coming May or June. (It should be noted that the proclivity of NTV, in contrast to the government-owned stations, to give voice to politicians and labor activists opposing the government draft was an additional irritant, as the extra publicity only aggravated the Kremlin's difficulties and may have transformed the issue into a focal point of broad societal discontent with the government.) […]

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