Today in Moscow, Chairman of the Social Fund of Russia, Sergey Chirkov, spoke at a meeting of the General Council of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia dedicated to implementation of the agreement between associations of trade unions, employers and the Government.
In his speech, Mr. Chirkov stated that the Social Fund and the Federation of Trade Unions work closely together on ensuring decent working conditions and reliable social guarantees for workers. A constant exchange of information has been established between the organizations, and they are taking an extensive outreach effort to help explain legal details, the use of electronic services and the labour rights of citizens.
"In the first quarter of the current year, we held over 700 consultations and workforce meetings attended by nearly 25,000 people," said Sergey Chirkov, "those events are held in a wide variety of formats, including explanations, practical advice and workshops. This kind of targeted, live, joint work directly advances every worker's understanding that they are protected, and that their eligible payouts and benefits are accessible and transparent."
Head of the Social Fund cited the outreach campaigns regarding the adjustment of pensions for working retirees and the recalculation of pensions for mothers of large families, initiatives requested by the President, as a prime example of this cooperation. Trade unions helped address these issues in a proactive way, directly at enterprises, working with individuals of pre-retirement age in advance, setting up electronic interaction between Social Fund branches and employers, and identifying women eligible for pension increases under the new conditions, including early increases.
Today, trade unions are also actively helping the Fund with outreach campaigns regarding annual family payouts: a new benefit for working parents with two or more children, to be launched in June.
At the meeting, Sergey Chirkov also noted that the process of compensating costs for preventive occupational safety measures has been improved thanks to the support provided by the Federation of Trade Unions of Russia, That effort enabled us to shift the focus away from redundant paper procedures and toward protecting human health and life.
Since last year, for instance, it has been sufficient to submit a single application and an action plan to receive financing, instead of a huge package of documents. The entire process, from submitting the application to cost compensation, is fully digitalized and available through a convenient service on the Gosuslugi Portal. Now, applications for cost compensation are processed essentially within three days, whereas previously this process used to take up to three weeks. 80% of companies already use this online tool, which means that funds for injury prevention arrive faster, reducing the number of occupational diseases and workplace injuries.
Sergey Chirkov highlighted the Federation's stance on matters concerning the rehabilitation of SMO servicemen. According to Head of the Social Fund, the Federation was one of the first to support the initiative to open the doors of the Social Fund's rehabilitation centers to the soldiers returning from the combat zone.
"Thanks to this, we were able to help 19,000 fighters restore their health last year," said Mr. Chirkov, "their feedback speaks for itself. Over 94% of veterans rate the conditions in the centers with the maximum score, and an improvement in health status is recorded in 98% of those who underwent rehabilitation." According to Chairman of the Social Fund, the treatment project continues this year, and the number of its participants is growing. The Social Fund plans to provide health recovery services to 22,000 veterans by the end of 2026.