The conclusion of a unified collective agreement has made it possible to streamline the provision of benefits

Before the event, participants were given a tour of the enterprise, during which they became more familiar with the working and living conditions of employees and the specifics of railway workers' jobs. By the way, currently, more than 8,850 people work at the Vitebsk branch of Belarusian Railways. The average salary for 10 months of 2016 was 805.0 rubles, or 104.9% compared to the same period last year.

The key issue "On the practice of interaction between the employer and the Vitebsk branch of Belarusian Railways Trade Union for the protection of labor rights and socio-economic interests of employees" was considered with the direct participation of social partners - the head of the Vitebsk branch of Belarusian Railways, Alexey Bulkin, and the chairman of the Trade Union, Pavel Yermalovich.

The Deputy Chairman of the Trade Union, Nadezhda Maslova, informed about the work done on concluding a unified collective agreement and collective bargaining relations at the enterprise. In particular, she noted that in April of this year, a new collective agreement for 2016-2018 was concluded at the enterprise. Before that, each structural unit, and there are 25 of them, had its own collective agreement. And only this year, taking into account the recommendation of the Decree of the Head of State "On the Development of Social Partnership in the Republic of Belarus" on concluding one collective agreement between subjects of social partnership at all levels of collective labor relations, an agreement on a unified collective agreement was reached. Meanwhile, the current collective agreement takes into account the specifics of all structural units.

- The main section that absolutely all employees are interested in is, of course, the section on social benefits and guarantees, - said Nadezhda Ignatievna. - We provide social benefits and guarantees in

The collective agreement is conditionally divided into two categories: those dependent on length of service and those not dependent on length of service. This is a kind of incentive factor for retaining staff and ensuring the material interest of each employee in long-term employment and conscientious performance of their duties. For example, bonuses for length of service ranging from 10% to 35% of the tariff rate (salary), and material assistance for health improvement upon granting annual leave, ranging from 25% to 100% of the tariff rate (salary), etc., depend on length of service. Thus, the one-time payment in the form of material assistance for health improvement upon granting annual leave to employees amounted to 1.135 million de-nominated rubles (13.5 billion rubles) of profit. In the first half of the current year, severance pay totaling 320 thousand de-nominated rubles (3.2 billion rubles) was paid to employees of the road department who retired. And 160 thousand de-nominated rubles (1.6 billion rubles) were paid to employees of the department on their юбилей dates.

Separately, Nadezhda Maslova focused on the organization of leisure and recreation for the enterprise's employees. 180 thousand de-nominated rubles (1.8 billion rubles) were spent on these purposes, including 76% on cultural and mass events and sports and health activities, 4% on tourist and excursion activities, and 20% on incentive and compensatory payments to employees of trade union organizations.

Railway workers are active participants in cultural, mass, and sports events. The tradition of holding festive programs dedicated to Women's Day, Victory Day, Railway Worker's Day, Senior Citizens' Day, New Year's parties, and recreation evenings has become well-established. Annually, trade union organizations organize about 10 excursion trips within Belarus and abroad.

In addition to the collective agreement, the road department has developed and approved a set of joint measures for the implementation of the Main Provisions of the Program for Socio-Economic Development of the Republic of Belarus for 2016-2020, which also reflects issues of collective bargaining relations.

- The conclusion of a unified collective agreement allowed

to organize the provision of benefits, to ensure rational planning and distribution of expenses under the collective agreement for the entire railway department, - Nadezhda Maslova summarized her speech.

The Chairman of the primary trade union organization of the Vitebsk locomotive depot, Nikolai Chuprunov, spoke about carrying out this work in his work collective. The chairmen of the industry trade unions shared their experience of trade union work and spoke about how the statutory tasks are being fulfilled in the primary organizations of their trade unions. The presidium noted the positive experience of the Rayprofsozh, and all attendees were able to gain a lot of interesting information for implementation in trade union activities.

Elena Ustinova, press service of the FPB for the Vitebsk region.