23.07.09

Russia's Federal Migration Service (FMS) has issued an official recommendation that its employees avoid issuing work permits for migrant workers to be employed in retail. This instruction was directed to all FMS regional offices. The measure was taken after Cherkizovsky market was closed in Moscow and will not affect those who already received their work permits, explained FMS representative Konstantin Poltoranin. Of the 2300 sellers inspected by the FMS at Cherkizovsky market only 1500 had legal paperwork for residing and working in Moscow.

The quota for foreign workers is established by government on an annual basis (this year the number amounts to almost 4 million persons). The quota is distributed throughout Russia's regions by interdepartmental group of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Development, also including FMS representatives

HR experts are sure that these instructions issued by the FMS are illegal. Procedures for obtaining work permits is not easy even now, requiring submitting approximately 20 documents that can take a foreigner attempting to file on his own up to one month to organize and submit.

Business experts believe that the FMS instructions will affect the retail sector. According to FMS statistics, of the 1.5 million foreign workers in Russia, approximately 250,000 are employed in retail, including 54 000 Chinese, 44,000 each Uzbeks and Vietnamese, approximately 35,000 from Tadzhikistan and 13,500 Ukrainians.

Translated by Alinga Consulting Group.

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Source: “Vedomosti”