Guaranteed Payments

in Soviet labor law, payments for the purpose of preventing wage losses by industrial and office workers who have not fulfilled their working obligations in the designated time because of valid reasons. Among the reasons accepted by the law are the necessity of fulfilling a government or social duty, use of the rest time provided for by law, and the impossibility of performing the work because of wrong or inefficient acts on the part of the administration of the enterprise or institution.

The legislation in force establishes possible cases of guaranteed payments and also their extent. Thus, guaranteed payments are granted for the term of (1) government or social obligations of the industrial and office workers, provided that the performance of these obligations during working time has been foreseen by legislation (Principles of Labor Legislation of 1970, art. 47, decree of the People’s Commissariat of Labor of the USSR of July 22, 1931, in Izvestiia NKTSSSR, 1931, no. 25); (2) regular or additional leave of the worker (Principles of Labor Legislation, art. 32, decree of the Sov-narkom [Council of People’s Commissars] of the USSR of July 25, 1935, Collection of Statutes of the USSR, 1935, no. 40, art. 333); (3) stoppage of work not caused by fault of the worker (Principles of Labor Legislation, art. 43, decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Sovnarkom of the USSR, of Dec. 30, 1931, Collection of Statutes of the USSR, 1932, no. 2, art. 11; no. 29, art. 144); (4) nursing leave granted to women industrial and office workers (Principles of Labor Legislation, art. 72); (5) leave granted so that industrial and office workers doing open-air work during the cold season can warm themselves (explanation of the People’s Commissariat of Labor of the USSR of Dec. 3, 1932, Izvestiia NKT SSSR, 1932, nos. 34-36); (6) release from work of industrial and office workers for improvement of their qualifications at strictly determined teaching institutions without being absent from work but given free days for lesson preparation, as well as release for training leaves (decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of July 2, 1959 [Collection of Decrees of the USSR, 1959, no. 14, art. 90], and of Nov. 5, 1959 [Collection of Decrees of the USSR, 1959, no. 19, art. 157]); (7) release from work for six days for travel preparations and settling at a new place, in case of transfer of the worker to another locality (decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Sovnarkom of the USSR of Nov. 23, 1931, Collection of Statutes of the USSR, 1931, no. 68, art. 453, with additional amendments); (8) forced idleness of the worker, but not for more than three months and only if he is subsequently reinstated to work (Principles of Labor Legislation, art. 92); (9) retention of the employment-book of a dismissed worker by the enterprise or establishment, so that the worker has no possibility of obtaining employment elsewhere, including cases in which this impossibility was caused by an unlawful formulation of the reason for dismissal (decree of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the USSR of Sept. 13, 1957, art. 21, Biulleten’ Verkhovnogo Suda SSSR, 1957, no. 5); (10) delay in settling accounts with a dismissed worker (decree of the Sovnarkom of the USSR, Jan. 23, 1929, Collection of Statutes of the USSR, 1929, no. 24, art. 208).

Guaranteed payments also include severance pay; payments for the period of temporary incapacity to work are established as part of the social security system.