On July 9th, the 2nd lecture on “2020 Labor Relations under Global Work Resumption During the Pandemic” was held online by our university and co-organized by the Labor Relations Branch of Human Resources Development of China. Nina Kuzmina, Vice-President of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR) and President of the Academy of Labor and Social Relations, was invited to give an online lecture entitled “The Adverse Impact of Covid-19 on the Russian Labor Market and Policy Responses”. Liu Xiangbing, Secretary of the Party Committee of our university, and Feng Xiliang, Chairman of the Labor Relations Branch of Human Resources Development of China, both participated in the event. Over one hundred experts, scholars, teachers and students inside and outside the campus attended online. The lecture was hosted by Mr. Liu Xiangbing.

Mr. Liu expressed his gratitude to President Nina Kuzmina for delivering the wonderful lecture. Then he reviewed the decades of exchanges and profound friendship between our university and the Academy of Labor and Social Relations in Russia. He indicated that this remote lecture played an important role in uniting the academic and trade unions in both China and Russia to fight against COVID-19 and accelerate deeper exchanges and cooperation in work and production resumption. According to Mr. Liu, although the pandemic had restricted cross-border travelling to a large extent, the information technology in the era of “Internet Plus” would revolute the traditional way of exchange and enable more flexible, convenient and immediate academic exchanges. He further emphasized on the importance of a comparative study of labor policies during the pandemic, which could not only help protect lives, improve people’s livelihood, and pursue social justice, but also reflect our original intention which is to build a community with a shared future for mankind. He hoped that the trade unions and academic communities in both China and Russia would deepen their exchanges and cooperation, provide more and better policy recommendations for their countries, and hold more meaningful and inspiring lectures.

In the lecture, President Nina Kuzmina expounded the impact of the pandemic on the Russian economy and labor market by focusing on the “challenges and opportunities”: on the one hand, the pandemic forced a large number of companies to stop operations and lay off many employees, resulting in an increase in unemployment, a gradual increase in the number of job seekers and job vacancies, and a fall in people’s income, which further resulted in economic slowdown. On the other hand, technological advances have accelerated digital transformation and the application of new technologies in various fields, leading to dramatic changes in labor demand. Flexible and versatile workers are more needed now. She also pinpointed some problems in the current form of remote work, such as the dissatisfaction of some staffs and the lack of relevant regulations. According to Ms. Kuzmina, the Russian government and trade unions have taken actions to respond to the pandemic and increase people’s income. The future direction of FNPR will be to protect the rights of workers in all forms of employment, as well as other rights and interests in the labor field.

During the discussion, Professor Zheng Qiao from the School of Labor Relations and Human Resources of our university responded to and explained related issues, including similar difficulties and problems shared by China and Russia under the pandemic, the challenges in public policies and governance in the two countries, outstanding labor relations problems, the trade unions’ focus on employment, labor rights and interests, legislative policies to protect the rights and interests of workers in new employment forms, and international communication and cooperation.

In the Q&A session, Professor Cao Fengyue, Associate Dean of the School of Marxism, Associate Professor Li Xingguo of the School of Public Administration, and Zhang Xiaoyue, the student representative of the School of Labor Relations and Human Resources, raised questions actively on a series of issues, including how young Russians view China’s success in pandemic containment, the challenges faced and countermeasures taken by FNPR in the tripartite coordination mechanism of labor relations in Russia, and whether the Russian people used their state subsidies for consumption or not and whether they can expand the consumption. Ms. Kuzmina answered the questions patiently and carefully. Everyone is in active participation.

Nina Kuzmina is currently the president of the “Academy of Labor and Social Relations”, a higher education institution of Russian trade unions, the Vice-President of FNPR, and the deputy coordinator for trade unions in the Russian Tripartite Committee on the regulation of social and labor relations. She participated in studying the positions taken by all federations of trade unions in Russia on social and economic policy issues, and joined the drafting of the 2018-2020 General Agreement between the All-Russian trade union associations, the All-Russian associations of employers and the Government; she was awarded the “100 Years of the Russian Trade Unions” medal and the “Outstanding Contribution to the Russian Trade Union Movement” badge issued by FNPR. In 2019, she was invited to participate and deliver a congratulatory speech in the 70th anniversary of our university.

　　

(Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges (Office of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs))