Prolonged Meritorious Service

(Russian, vysluga let), under Soviet labor law a period of labor activity under certain conditions (such as in the Far North) in a certain profession (such as physician) or job in certain branches of the national economy; this service confers the right to extra privileges or advantages (incentive payments, additional vacation time, or prolonged meritorious service pensions).

Occupations in the underground and surface mining of coal and ore and in the metallurgical, chemical, oil, or gas industries or several other types of production are named in the List of Manufactures, Shops, and Professions of Workers and Posts of Directors, Technical-Engineering Workers, and Office Workers, ratified by the State Labor and Wages Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on Nov. 5, 1957; workers in the designated occupations are paid compensation for prolonged meritorious service yearly (in one payment) or monthly (a percentage increment to wages). Yearly compensation is paid in the case of a continuous period of work: for service from three to five years in length, it equals a monthly fixed job salary; from five to ten years, 140 percent of a monthly fixed job salary; from ten to 15 years, 180 percent; and for service longer than 15 years, twice the monthly pay rate. Underground workers are also paid this increment (at a rate of 80 percent of the monthly wages), when they have served from two to three years. For those in industries in the Urals, Siberia, the Far East, regions of the Far North, and comparably distant locations, the increment cannot exceed 600 rubles per year or 50 rubles per month; in other regions of the USSR it cannot exceed 400 rubles a year or 34 rubles a month (statement of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of Mar. 2, 1957, Collection of Resolutions of the USSR, 1957, no. 4, p. 43). Since July 1, 1961, the increase in increments for prolonged meritorious service according to the length of continuous service applies only to workers directly involved in underground labor. The other workers entitled to increments for prolonged meritorious service are paid at a rate established according to conditions on July 1, 1961, over the whole period of work at a given enterprise in corresponding jobs; the increments are also allowed in the case of their transfer to another enterprise to a job where such payments are made.

In 1966 pay increments were introduced for a period of work in a given specialization in one and the same enterprise for tractor and machine operators of sovkhozes, raion unions, sections of Agricultural Equipment and Materials Agencies, machine cattle-breeding stations, machine land-reclamation stations, meadow-reclamation stations, and other state enterprises of agriculture and water utilization. In 1966 additional payment for prolonged meritorious service was also established for workers, directors, technical-engineering workers and employees of timber, timber-rafting, and lumber-transshipping enterprises and chemical forestry industries located in the forested regions of the USSR.

For workers in the Far North and similarly distant areas, a percentage increment to the basic rate of pay has been established depending on prolonged meritorious service in the regions mentioned (decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of Sept. 26, 1967’, Record of ’the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, 1967, no. 39). Permanent workers and employees in forestry and the forestry industry (according to the special list of jobs and professions) receive additional vacation time of 24 working days for every three years of continuous labor. The right to additional vacation time for prolonged meritorious service was extended in 1967 to workers of the enterprises and organizations of the ferrous metal industry and in 1968 to workers of construction and assembly organizations.

For prolonged meritorious service in particular specializations, several categories of workers receive a pension granted independently of ability to work and, usually, independently of age. Such pensions for prolonged meritorious service were established for workers of flight and loading crews in civil aviation and aeronautics and for agronomists, veterinarians, and several categories of theater artists and other performers.