Labor Precarization: Russian Empirical Evidence

Abstract

In the conditions of educational and health institutions reforming and a series of economic crises, representatives of social-oriented helping professions move to the precarization zone. Based on the survey conducted in the spring of 2017 (2,054 school teachers and 870 physicians in state organizations in Moscow, Rostov-on-Don and Kazan), signs of precracious labor were identified: instability, the risk of job loss/changing, an increase in workload, not accompanied by higher wages, social and economic vulnerability. The empirical data shows that despite the satisfactory self-assessment of socially-oriented professionals' life, the level of precarious labor is higher for teachers from provincial cities and lower in the capital schools. In the field of health care, the extent of precarization is approximately the same in the different cities. Most teachers and doctors are concerned about the growth of workload without increasing wages and the risks of job loss. The majority of representatives of helping professions do not agree with the fact that the state effectively solves the social and economic problems of teaching. At the same time, interviewed teachers and doctors will take a rather passive attitude in case of violation of their labor rights. Nothing will be done by more than a half of all respondents. However, the excessive regulation of school teachers and physicians, on the one hand, and the continuing high demand for the work of schools and hospitals on the other, are associated with the risk of social tension increase in the Russian society.