Violations in the Activities of Student Brigades

The Beshenkovichi District Prosecutor's Office conducted an inspection of the implementation of legislation on the organization of student brigades' activities in 2016 in the Beshenkovichi District, during which the effectiveness of the organization of work by state bodies and institutions to ensure temporary employment of children and young students was analyzed.

The inspection found that authorized bodies, in cooperation with organizations of the Beshenkovichi District, are taking certain measures aimed at involving minors in socially useful employment to acquire work skills.

However, the organization of work of interested bodies and associations in the field of implementing state youth policy aimed at developing student brigades' activities does not fully meet the requirements of Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus "On the Organization of Student Brigades' Activities on the Territory of the Republic of Belarus" dated 16.04.2012 No. 181, the Instruction on the Procedure for Organizing Student Brigades' Activities, approved by the Resolution of the Ministry of Education dated 07.06.2012 No. 60, which assigns the function of control and general coordination of work on the formation of student brigades to the Ministry of Education.

During the inspection of the organization of student brigades' activities directly in the district organizations where young people were employed through the referral of the RK OO "BRSM", discrepancies were found between the roster of the student brigade and the actual presence of its participants.

In some cases, minors began work before the documentary creation and approval of the roster of student brigade participants, which in some cases indicated individual employment of teenagers with subsequent documentary registration of their work activities as part of a student brigade, pointing to the formality of its activities. Participants of some student brigades never started work.

It should be noted that some enterprises concluded contracts for work with minor participants of student brigades. However, only an employment contract provides a full package of guarantees for citizens and limits discrimination against minors in the field of labor relations. Consequently, the practice of host parties concluding contracts for work with students instead of employment contracts is unfounded and illegal.

Some organizations allowed minors to perform work without medical certificates of the established form confirming the children's fitness for the types of work under the contract, and without identity documents of the brigade participants (passports).

In violation of the requirements of Decree No. 181 and labor legislation, students under 14 years of age were involved in agricultural work in one of the farms, which grossly violates the requirements of Article 272 of the Labor Code of the Republic of Belarus and Article 16 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus dated 23.06.2008 "On Labor Protection".

Decree No. 181 provides for the exemption of employers, the host party, from paying mandatory insurance contributions in case of reaching retirement age, disability, and loss of a breadwinner (pension insurance) to the budget of the state extra-budgetary social protection fund of the Republic of Belarus for payments accrued in favor of student brigade participants.

However, the inspection found that some employers did not use the released funds for their intended purpose for the development of student brigade activities.