Involuntary volunteers: who really puts out fires in Transbaikalia
Civil servants in Transbaikalia are allegedly voluntarily and forcibly involved in extinguishing fires. They take vacations at their own expense, but they are not insured, said Andrei Tomskikh, co-chairman of the Popular Front in the region. The statement caused rather surprise in the volunteer community, however, the activist emphasizes that there is evidence of his words. Izvestia investigated how often voluntary activity actually turns out to be voluntary and forced.
"A significant part of the volunteers"
Andrei Tomskikh, co-chairman of the Popular Front, made the statement at the Forum of the Strong in Chita. He asked Natalia Chetveryakova, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources of the Trans-Baikal Territory, about the situation with civil servants who are involved in extinguishing fires.
"A significant part of the volunteers on fires are state and municipal employees who are voluntarily and forcibly sent. According to my information, they take vacations at their own expense, they are not insured. I have a question for the ministry that deals with this — who should be responsible for this?" — he declared.
Natalia Chetveryakova declined to answer, as she is not in charge of this issue.
The government of the region limited itself to the words: "This is happening voluntarily in our country," and Tomsky's statement was called his opinion. In addition, the media, citing sources, also reported that in different departments of the region, "approaches to encouraging volunteers vary: some give time off, while others do not pay or compensate for work."
Andrey Tomskikh confirmed to Izvestia that he had encountered such cases, and in support of his words referred to comments that appeared under publications after his words about forcing civil servants to volunteer. Many actually wrote that volunteers are not insured in case of death or injury, that "civil servants take part voluntarily-forcibly." Andrey Tomskikh did not disclose the names of people who faced coercion.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Trans-Baikal Territory did not respond to Izvestia's request, and the People's Front was also unable to explain the situation with Andrei Tomsky's statement at the time of publication.
Izvestia sent a request to the government of the Trans-Baikal Territory, but at the time of publication of the material, they also had not received a response.
What do the volunteers say on the ground?
The volunteer community reacted with doubt to Andrey Tomsky's statement.
The field coordinators emphasized that there are very few civil servants among the volunteers.
"Civil servants were there yesterday, they were seen, but there are very few of them, about 10%," the coordinator at the fire extinguishing site in Atamanovka (a suburb of Chita) told Izvestia. — Izvestia) Andrey. — Several "ataman" people, and the rest from the administration (Cheats. — Izvestia). All the other volunteers are just either locals or just caring people who have applied for vacations at their own expense and are putting out fires here.
He stressed that he did not know whether the volunteer civil servants were forced here or not.
Irina Kuznetsova, another coordinator of the volunteer group in Atamanovka, said that since May there has been a group of volunteers from Transbaikalia, now there are about 8 thousand people there.
"Municipal and government employees are taking part in the work in many areas in the Trans—Baikal Territory, but so far I have not seen people who are outraged that they do not want to participate in this," she told Izvestia. — I have been volunteering for many years, until I met with forced volunteerism. We have a lot of people here who are interested in saving the village, and people come from all over the Trans-Baikal Territory.
In Transbaikalia, the situation with forest fires is difficult — in the area of the village of Atamanovka, the fire resumed on June 20, the next day three houses in suburban cooperatives burned down there, and on the 22nd the fire moved to the riding level. According to media reports, by that time the fire area was already 100 hectares. As of June 24, the fire area near Atamanovka has grown to 4 thousand hectares.
Are civil servants being forced to volunteer in other regions
Alexey Uretsky, a public figure and one of the founders of the development of the volunteer movement in modern Russia, stressed that he was surprised by the statement on the situation in Transbaikalia.
— As far as I know, the volunteer movement is strongly developed in this region, — he told Izvestia. — There are regular emergencies there, and it happens that we even reinforce a volunteer group from Moscow. But the guys themselves, voluntarily, go at their own expense.
Uretsky emphasizes that these are usually not just people who wanted to help, but trained volunteers who have been trained in emergency response in specialized units of the Russian Union of Rescuers and the All-Russian Student Rescue Corps.
— In different regions, as far as I know, there are different categories for providing volunteers — but it is the volunteers! — Alexey Uretsky emphasizes. — From the district — 10-15 people in the composite group. But I have not heard that they were forcibly recruited. If this happens, then it is most likely a flaw in the responsible body responsible for the volunteer movement in a particular region.
Irina Mersiyanova, director of the Center for Research on Civil Society and the Non-Profit Sector at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, one of the largest researchers of the volunteer movement in Russia, also notes that she does not know about cases of forcing volunteers to eliminate emergencies.
— There is no reason to say that voluntary and forced volunteering is a common practice, — she is sure. — The real-life experience of representatives of the non-profit sector, which we study as part of the monitoring, suggests that in the vast majority of situations, people come to help of their own free will.
Irina Mersiyanova emphasizes that the process of recruiting volunteers through the system of state and municipal government is easier, but even here we are not talking about coercion, but about mobilization.
"It's much easier to attract people and any resources when it's done in a centralized way," she said. — So if voluntary or compulsory participation is found somewhere, it is more likely as an exception, rather than as the norm.
Yuri Belanovsky, co-founder of the School of Social Volunteerism and head of the Danilovtsy volunteer movement, noted that the compulsion to volunteer is found in the social sphere.
"I do know of cases — and quite a few — when various departments forcibly sent their employees to help people or to implement any socially significant activities," he told Izvestia. — But mostly it happened during working hours, and rather some kind of PR project was being implemented in this way: it was necessary to show that they had managed to implement something with the help of volunteers, although these people were not such.
Yuri Belanovsky is also unaware of situations where employees were forced to work on a voluntary basis to eliminate fires or floods in dangerous areas. There are only a few cases when people performed more standard work: helping refugees, victims of the fire, etc. d.
"If people are not only dismissed from work on behalf of a government organization, but also forced to do volunteer work on weekends, this is already a reason for law enforcement agencies to deal with such facts," the expert believes.
How legislation protects volunteers
Stanislav Gevorgyan, Chairman of the NGO Union of Volunteers, notes that the basic guarantees of volunteers are enshrined in Federal Law No. 135-FZ "On Charitable Activities and Volunteerism." It prescribes compulsory insurance if a volunteer participates in events included in the federal or regional register; state support for participation in emergency situations and elimination of consequences of natural disasters. In addition, volunteers can often be compensated for travel and accommodation.
Yuri Belanovsky, however, notes that compensation of expenses to volunteers, insurance registration, etc. remain a recommendation, not an obligation.
— Many volunteer organizations are usually quite poor, organized precisely as private open communities that cannot afford to pay for insurance or whatever, — he said. — In this case, as far as I understand, the law assumes that if a volunteer agrees to work without this insurance, then he participates in some dangerous work on behalf of this organization - extinguishing fires, etc. If he does not agree, then he does not participate in it.
Volunteer coordinators in Atamanovka confirmed to Izvestia that there are people among the volunteers who do not have insurance.
Irina Mersiyanova emphasizes that now the guarantees provided to volunteers vary depending on the degree of formalization of participation.
— Participation in an official structure, such as the volunteer fire protection corps, gives a volunteer the opportunity to complete full-fledged training, receive an appropriate certificate, protective clothing, and their working hours are recorded in the Dobro system.the Russian Federation," she said. — Nevertheless, in emergency situations, when the flow of people is large and there is not enough time to prepare, the contribution of volunteers who came "from the street" is often not formalized in any way, and in this case it is really possible that the guarantees actually provided do not meet the expectations of the volunteers.
Alexey Uretsky also notes that insurance is often not provided, but it is better to arrange it yourself.
"When we went to eliminate the consequences of the flood in Komsomolsk—on-Amur in 2013, we were literally required to take out insurance before leaving Moscow," he said. — I took an extended one, to the point that if something happened to me, my body would have to be brought home. There is such insurance, and it is, in principle, inexpensive. It is recommended for every volunteer.
The expert believes that in this sense, there is a serious gap in Russian legislation — the law on volunteerism needs to be seriously improved.
— Unfortunately, there is also a sad experience of the treatment of volunteers who participated in various operations, and then they were fired from a commercial organization because they took vacations at their own expense, — Alexey Uretsky continues. — I think that this is a reason for lawmakers to prescribe that a volunteer should be protected from dismissal, because a person does not just help, he helps his country.
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