Bug list: employees of Magnolia stores are housed in unsanitary dormitories

Unsanitary conditions and overcrowded rooms were waiting for people who got a job at the Magnolia stores. Izvestia visited several dormitories, where they found bunk beds close to each other, and bedbugs on them. More than 15 employees are accommodated in one room. All but one of these employee placements are located on the ground floors of apartment buildings. Whether such living conditions are legal is in the Izvestia article.

What conditions do the employees of Magnolia live in?

The promised free accommodation for employees of the Magnolia stores turned into overcrowded rooms, unsanitary conditions and bedbugs, Izvestia found out during its own investigation.

One of these dormitories is located in a business center on Nizhegorodskaya Street, among shops, logistics companies and repair shops. The Magnolia employees live there in dozens of rooms.

Nikolai, who was trying to get a job at a chain of stores as a cashier, told Izvestia that after spending the night in the hostel, he began to itch violently. The diagnosis is allergic dermatitis.

"I got a job at the Magnolia, they gave me a dorm, they got spots, and there was a huge bald spot on my back," he said. — I came to the store itself to talk with the director and they said to me: "Well, since you don't like our dorm, we didn't have time to register you in principle, you won't work here either."

When the Izvestia correspondent visited, the commandant immediately warned that there were insects, namely bedbugs.

— Now we'll finish it, we'll close the rooms, no one comes out until the evening. They bring animals from work, and where else can they bring them from," he argues.

Nikolai provided Izvestia with a video from the dormitory. The footage shows bunk beds stacked tightly together, covered with towels, and insects on dirty mattresses.

All but one of the dormitories are located in residential buildings. Most of the time, they have their own separate entrance, and the commandant sits inside, who only lets employees of Magnolia inside. In other places of residence, Izvestia found one shower on the entire floor, the rooms are overcrowded.

— A room for nine people, but they also accommodate 15 employees, — said one of the hostel managers.

Fire safety is also "at zero": there is a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall, but there is nowhere to run in case of a fire — there is only one way out, there is no firefighter.

Where the workers are housed

The store's employees told Izvestia about several more dormitories scattered around Moscow. So, on Castanayevskaya Street there is a two-storey non-residential building, the entire ground floor of which is occupied by a Magnolia and a pharmacy. The hostel is not listed in the list of organizations, however, some aggregator sites indicate that there is a student dormitory in the house. However, there is no contact or legal information.

Another dormitory on General Dorokhov Street is legally located, it is owned by IP Vasiliev E.I. with the corresponding OKVED activity. This is a non-residential administrative building adjacent to the thermal power plant. The nearest company store is at least four kilometers away.

On Vereyskaya and Bolshaya Marfinskaya streets there were hostels of LLC "SVK" and LLC "SVK Hostel" companies, now they are liquidated. They were re-registered to Pinel LLC, an active organization, but the phone and websites are not active. According to the Rusprofile database, the company has been unprofitable since 2022 and the financial situation has only worsened. The Vereyskaya Hostel's accreditation expires on May 29, 2025.

As stated by Svetlana Razvorotneva, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Communal Services, the management of such retail chains is trying to save on everything, including the places of residence of their employees.

— The use of premises that are not intended for living is categorically unacceptable, — said the deputy.

But in 95% of cases, the organization of such places of residence has violations, Alexey Menshikov, technologist and sanitizer of the sanitary assessment service, told Izvestia.

— The probability that bed bugs are here is 100%, the appearance of cockroaches is 100%, — he pointed out.

That is, unsanitary conditions, bacteria and viruses that employees can carry to the shops after spending the night in such a hostel.

"These are problems with infections, the transfer of diseases from person to person and to the product," the expert said.

There is still a shortage of personnel in many industries, the chairman of the Presidium of the Association of Retail Trade Companies (ACORT) told Izvestia Stanislav Bogdanov.

— The average share of retail staffing is estimated at 85-90%, — he said. — It is often impossible to compensate for staff shortages only through local staff or the involvement of migrant workers.

According to him, comprehensive work is important: an increase in salaries, which increased by an average of 20% in trade last year, an expansion of inclusive hiring, the formation of more flexible approaches to hiring employees and technological solutions to optimize the workload on staff. In some cases, companies can provide foreign citizens with housing by renting rooms in hotels and dormitories.

— At the same time, the retailers themselves are not the owners of the facilities, — said Stanislav Bogdanov. — The retail chains included in ACORT operate in strict accordance with the law, and we are not aware of any violations by the federal retail regarding the placement of nonresident and foreign employees.

Magnolia is not a member of this association. Izvestia sent a request to the retail chain, but there was no response at the time of publication.

Who is responsible for unsanitary conditions

94 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, houses or parts of houses specially built or converted for these purposes are provided for dormitories, recalled judicial lawyer Ilya Vasilchuk. Living quarters in dormitories are equipped with furniture and other items necessary for citizens to stay.

— A lease agreement must be concluded, which defines the rights and obligations of the parties to use specialized residential premises, — he said. — In accordance with Article 105 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, residential premises in dormitories are provided at the rate of at least six square meters of living space per person.

In addition, according to sanitary rules and regulations, daily wet cleaning using detergents and cleaning products should be carried out in dormitories.

— There should be no synanthropic insects and rodents in the premises, — the expert added. — When they appear, business entities operating facilities must carry out disinsection and deratization measures.

In addition to apartment-type dormitories, living rooms and common areas should be provided: toilets, washrooms, showers, women's hygiene rooms, laundry rooms, ironing rooms, laundry drying rooms, kitchens, storerooms for household equipment, linen rooms, personal belongings storage rooms.

The business entity operating the dormitory must ensure that the soft equipment (mattresses, pillows, blankets) is disinfected annually, as well as after each eviction of residents.

— Responsibility is provided for violation of legislation in the field of sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population, — Ilya Vasilchuk emphasized. — For legal entities — from 500 thousand rubles to 1 million rubles or administrative suspension of activity for up to 90 days.

The article of the Criminal Code on violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of five to seven years. Responsibility for compliance with sanitary standards and regulations in dormitories is borne by the business entity operating the facility. This means that the administration of the hostel is obliged to ensure proper maintenance of the premises.