On April 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a televised address in which he stated that the remainder of the month would be a non-working one, though average wages would continue to be guaranteed. Russia's regional authorities, he continued, would have to decide for themselves which additional restrictions to introduce.
On the eve of Putin's speech, the authorities in the Samara Region declared a stricter self-isolation regime. At the time, this region along the Volga River already had one of the country's highest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Among those infected were two workers at AvtoVaz, an immense car assembly plant in the city of Tolyatti, where it employs about 35,000 people. By order of the president, all employees of the enterprise were sent home by April 3.
But in early April, Governor of the Samara Region Dmitry Azarov declared that AvtoVaz had urged the local authorities to be allowed to resume operations. The government gave permission, but on condition that the car plant adhere to the requirements of Rospotrebnadzor (the Russian state's consumer rights watchdog — ed.): social distancing, regular disinfection of the premises, and the provision of personal protective equipment to all workers.
According to Sergey Zaitsev, the chairman of the leading trade union among AvtoVaz workers, all necessary measures are being upheld at the car plant, and its production line has passed an inspection by Sanepinadzor, the Russian state's epidemiological service. In an interview for openDemocracy, Zaitsev added that workers who have reached or are soon to reach retirement age are attempting to leave work by taking sick leave, while workers with chronic health issues may stay at home if they can provide a doctor's note. According to the union chairman, about ten percent of the plant's 35,000 workers are currently at home.
The first working week back at AvtoVaz began on April 13. Workers at the car plant were soon taking to social media to complain about crowded buses, lower wages, and the poor quality of the masks provided. Shortly after arriving at work, some employees of the car plant were sent back home due to downtime and, in accordance with Article 157 Section 2 of Russia's Labour Code, paid a new rate at two thirds of their average wage. If the company had not resumed work, these employees would have received their wages in full.
OpenDemocracy asked several employees of AvtoVaz whether they were afraid to go to work during this pandemic, and whether the precautionary measures were indeed being followed. Here is what they said.
Sersh Sangerov, repairman, 48 years old
Literally a week before the enterprise's work was suspended, the managers decided on so-called "optimisation". Some of the workers from my workshop were booted out into a neighbouring workshop, thereby mixing one "herd" of workers with another. So they've actually increased the number of people per unit in the factory, and this at a time when COVID-19 is already stalking the planet.
I'm one of the repair staff: I'm called to work on equipment when I'm asked to fix something. I also have a repair site where I can be found unless somebody has called me. That's where I do routine, preventative, maintenance work. Previously, there were overhead hoists in the workshops and crane beams, so it was still possible to get the hang of things by transporting parts to a single worker. But then the effective managers came and cut up the cranes for scrap metal. And where the cranes once stood, they hung posters which urge us to work harder and offer other inspiring slogans. But now, if you need to replace anything which weighs more than 20 kilograms, workers have to get quite close to each other, almost so our bellies are touching, so there can be no talk of social distancing.
