Art business: hundreds of thousands of Russians ended up in workhouses
Yekaterinburg media reported about a man who ended up in a workhouse, where they promised to help him, but in the end he lost his home and became disabled. The story is difficult to call unambiguous: the founder of the workhouse claims that he did not take any illegal actions, and the former guest allegedly blamed himself for everything, as he abused alcohol. However, the truth is that there really are a lot of such "organizations" in the country. The names can be different: worker, workhouse, labor house or house of diligence — and there are hundreds of thousands of people in them. Izvestia investigated how to profit from people who find themselves in a difficult life situation, and whether any regulation of this area is needed.
The story of Andrey from Yekaterinburg
The portal told about the story of a 53-year-old resident of Yekaterinburg named Andrey. E1.ru .
The man has alcohol addiction, six prison sentences for theft, theft and robbery. He ended up in a workhouse three years ago: he was picked up by a recruiter. Although Andrey had his own room, the man was wandering, and the recruiter offered to help him overcome his alcohol addiction and get a job.
A workhouse is a cottage in the private sector. In the rooms there are bunks in two tiers for men like Andrei, who were promised help. According to the victim, the food here was "better than in prison," but alcohol was banned, and they were also sent to work on various construction sites. The man claims that the leaders beat them for any wrongdoing, often very cruelly.
For an eight-hour shift, the tenants of the workhouse received about 700 rubles. At one of these construction sites, Andrei suffered a serious hand injury, for which, according to the hero of the material, he was not compensated.
Later, the head of the shelter offered Andrey to sell the room, especially since the debt for the communal apartment there reached 300 thousand rubles and it could allegedly be taken away (the room was not privatized, on social loan). Andrey agreed and sold his house through privatization. He claims that he was allegedly offered only 50 thousand rubles for this, although the contract specified the cost of 2 million rubles. Soon, Andrey left the workhouse and voluntarily went to another one of the same, but on the advice of an acquaintance. According to Andrey, they pay more there, treat them more humanely, and let them go on weekends, but they don't let drunks back in.
Mikhail, the head of the NGO and founder of the workhouse, told reporters that Andrei was a "professional alcoholic" and a "conman", and he had drunk or lost the money — all 2 million rubles - while he was drunk. Mikhail claims that he testified to the police. He considers his activities to be helping such people.
How many workhouses are there in the country
Arina Fayrushina, coordinator of the anti-slavery movement Alternative, says that there are several thousand workhouses throughout Russia. There may be about 1,000 of them in the suburbs of Moscow, and hundreds in other large cities.
Daniil Alexandrov, the PR manager of the Nochlezhka charity organization, has a similar assessment.
— Based on the information we receive from people who seek help at Nochlezhka, we can very roughly identify the lower level of those employed in Russian workhouses.: That's several hundred thousand people. The average workhouse gathers from 20 to 40 people, respectively, there may be several thousand such "organizations," he told Izvestia.
According to Daniil Alexandrov, there is a possibility that there will only be more such workhouses.
— If in 2020-2021 we almost stopped seeing recruiters of workhouses — or, as they call themselves, "volunteers" — next to their projects, and their victims began to come to us less often, now we are more likely to encounter such cases. There are also more ads on the walls and poles, and recruiters at the gates and in the parking lots where we feed the needy," said Daniil Alexandrov.
Who lives in workhouses
According to Arina Fayrushina, there are many homeless people in such houses, but these are far from the only victims of recruiters. In principle, people find themselves in a vulnerable position there: visitors from other regions who were deceived and robbed in a big city, people without documents, migrants and vagabond people with severe alcohol or other addiction.
Daniil Alexandrov names two main sources of labor for work homes. The first is people who move to a big city in search of work and come to the attention of "volunteers". The second source is those released from the colonies who cannot find work because they do not have registration and assistance from relatives.
Emil Sosinsky, head of the Noah House of Diligence, claims that 90% of all homeless people who used to be on the streets are in workhouses. And 90% of them, according to him, are people with severe alcohol or drug addiction. 70% have a criminal record. Sosinsky believes that such people cannot live independently without constant supervision and employment, and justifies the existence of workhouses by saying that their inhabitants become much less dangerous to themselves and others.
Lana Zhurkina, director of the House of Friends Center, disagrees with this position.
— Wards periodically leave work homes. They are given so-called drinking days, when a person works for a while, then leaves for three to five days and drinks what he has earned," she told Izvestia.
And Daniil Alexandrov calls labor homes one of the reasons for homelessness: often those who have left the orphanage find themselves on the street. At the same time, he does not consider staying in this institution to be a path to rehabilitation.
What kind of workhouses are there
Emil Sosinsky says that there are now several types of workhouses. He does not refer his house of diligence directly to workers, although it is considered one of the most famous in the country.
Noah was founded in 2011, and Emil Sosinsky is a former volunteer of the Preobrazhenie Rossii organization, banned by the Ministry of Justice, who left it due to disagreement with the leadership. Sosinsky calls the re-socialization of people the main task of his house of diligence: the guests not only work for money, but also go to spiritual meetings, they are forbidden to drink, etc.
The head of Noah admits that one of the former project managers left after a year of work to found the first workhouse in the modern sense — Sparta. The main thing there, according to Emil Sosinsky, was the earnings of such people: they were given jobs, but they were not limited so much.
After that, a lot of "houses of diligence" began to appear in various forms.
— The competition has led to the appearance of "drunken workhouses". It's already officially allowed to drink there, as long as a person goes to work. "Slave workhouses" appeared, where people who were no longer accepted into ordinary workhouses got into, but then they didn't just let them go from there and paid almost nothing,— said Emil Sosinsky.
According to him, this is "a business with an animal grin."
"If a manager needs to buy a new car for himself this month, he will find ways to underpay his workers," the organizer emphasizes.
How much do they earn at workhouses
Daniil Alexandrov calls the workhouse labor outsourcing: The "owner" rents out his tenants to other businesses. This is profitable due to illegal employment, concealment of income and exploitation of people: almost 50% of the amounts received by the owners from the customers are saved on taxes alone. He estimates the maintenance of an employee, taking into account cash payments, meals and a bed, at 1-2 thousand rubles per day, but for a 12-hour working day of his tenant, the owner can receive from 3 thousand to 10 thousand rubles.
Arina Fayrushina points out that the cost of housing for the owner of the maternity hospital ranges from 30 to 200 thousand rubles per month. She estimates the income from this business at millions of rubles of net profit.
According to Emil Sosinsky, each homeless person brings his "master" about 40 thousand rubles a month. If there are 20 such guests, he will be able to receive 800 thousand per month. rubles'.
Can a workhouse be legal
It is legally impossible to run a workhouse business, Daniel Alexandrov emphasizes.
— By definition, this is an illegal activity, since it involves violation of labor rights and non-payment of taxes. A legitimate alternative to such activities is residential work, including shift work, but with the official registration of an employee in accordance with the Labor Code," he told Izvestia.
Emil Sosinsky says that there are no legal workhouses, at least because it is impossible to fulfill the official requirements of the supervisory authorities. Therefore, the rental of premises is issued to individuals: this allows you to avoid inspections and huge fines. However, according to him, various shelters of charitable organizations most often work in the same illegal field.
Arina Fayrushina notes that the labor homes of some charitable organizations can still be considered legal. But registration as an NGO does not become a guarantee of honest activity.
— "Rehabilitation centers" and "houses of diligence", which sometimes disguise themselves as work homes, trying to pretend that their task is to help people, also violate labor laws, since workers are considered "wards", they can be exploited without any registration, without giving guarantees and the opportunity to improve their health in case of illness, — This is Daniil Alexandrov speaking.
Among those who needed the help of Nochlezhka were people who had difficulty getting out of a very famous labor home that positions itself as a charitable organization. And on their way out, they found themselves in a worse situation than they were before they got there.
It is very difficult to deal with slave labor, just like with any other shadow business. Injured people rarely contact the police or other government agencies to protect their rights, the expert clarifies.
Do workhouses need regulation
Arina Fayrushina is sure that it is necessary to introduce a separate category of "workhouse" for regulation.
"Even if this is not done, then at least oblige them to register within the framework of the legal categories and structures existing in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation," she told Izvestia. — Their relationship with their wards must be justified by an employment or civil law contract.
She emphasizes that there are no regulatory criteria yet. This also hinders the work of law enforcement agencies, who simply cannot find a basis for action when they come to workhouses where, as they are told, people voluntarily live.
The Alternative recently proposed its own bill on this topic. It proposes the introduction of separate criminal liability for forced labor, and the regulation of "workhouses": registration of organizations, a contract with each employee, prescribed conditions of accommodation and payment. They also propose to provide for the closure of centers with signs of exploitation and criminal prosecution of their leaders.
Emil Sosinsky is also convinced that it is necessary to regulate workhouses by introducing strict control over them: to eradicate "slave houses" and "drunken houses", oblige owners to register people and pay taxes. He opposes the closure of such institutions because it could lead to a surge in street crime.
However, says Emil Sosinsky, so far there have been no legislative initiatives close to at least consideration in the State Duma.
Lana Zhurkina is sure that labor homes cannot be regulated by law — they only need to be closed, although such "organizations" could become a good base for setting up medical and labor dispensaries.
— People from the street should be able to go somewhere. If we have a large number of places for overnight stays, short—term stays and labor integration with the possibility of providing a place in a dormitory, then labor homes will become less attractive, she is sure. — We need government support for NGOs that are involved in rehabilitation and re-socialization.
Daniil Alexandrov notes that the state has already paid attention to workhouses. So far, from the point of view of labor rights and taxes.
— In October of this year, the problem was first discussed at the Interdepartmental Commission on Shadow Employment, — he said.
Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation and the office of the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation.
* An organization banned in Russia
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