Labour disputes to be resolved out of court

Russia is going to get two new labour arbitration courts and two social partnership centres, Vladimir Lazarev said on Thursday.

The head of the Labour Ministry's department for settlement of collective labour disputes and development of social partnership explained that the project was being implemented as part of a TACIS programme /European Union programme/, "Labour Legislation and Arbitration", which will be launched on July 1 of this year. Lazarev also said that the first labour arbitration court and first social partnership centre have been active in Russia since 2001.

"The aim of the project is to develop further the system of deciding collective labour disputes before going to court," Lazarev explained. "The European Union intends to invest about 3 million euros into its realisation. In the course of the next 30 months two Russian regions will get labour arbitration courts to resolve collective labour disputes and two more, social partnership centres," he added.

The ministry's spokesman noted that labour arbitration courts are not elements of the judiciary. Their purpose is to explore new approaches to solving labour disputes.