The institution of dismissal of an employee at the initiative of the employer in 1970-1980 as a reflection of the problems of Late Soviet Labor Law
Authors:   Tomsk State University, Demidov Nikolay V. ,   Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics
Published: March 2023

By the beginning of the 1980s, the legal regulation of relations on termination of an employment contract at the initiative of the employer remained unchanged for a decade. The prevailing volume of norms was fixed in 1970. Fundamentals of the legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics on Labor and the Labor Code of the RSFSR of 1971 Article 254 of the Labor Code of the RSFSR of 1971 fixed additional grounds for the release of certain categories of workers. The grounds for dismissal of employees with a special legal status were also fixed in the branch Charters on labor discipline. Disciplinary dismissals occupied a place in a more extensive system of punishments than today. In addition, a remark, reprimand, strict reprimand, transfer to a lower-paid job could be applied to an employee with a general status. During the period under study, many constructive approaches to the interpretation of legislation and filling in gaps were developed by judicial practice. In the field of dismissal due to loss of trust, the interpretation of categories of persons serving monetary or commodity values has been formed. Relevant to Soviet practice was the modern problem of the absence of a normative list of persons directly servicing monetary or commodity values. The judicial practice of the late Soviet period also contained ambiguous approaches. Thus, during the period under review, the tradition of Soviet and Russian courts to interfere in the employer's decision to dismiss for violation of labor duties without valid reasons took root. Contrary to the ideological attitude towards the withering away of the right, the reverse process unfolded. The volume of regulatory prescriptions in the field of dismissal at the initiative of the employer has been continuously increasing, theoretical and practical developments have been introduced, legal conflicts have been overcome. However, technical and legal development did not solve the main problem of late Soviet labor law - a large-scale decline in labor discipline in all sectors of the national economy. Difficulties with the behavior of employees and employees can be traced both directly, through legislative and party acts, and indirectly, through a significant mass of publications on the relevant topic. The constructiveness of the scientific search of the 1980s was to a certain extent reduced by its ideologization. It was politically impossible to admit that the Soviet economic organization alienated the worker from the result of labor to a greater extent than the capitalist one. New means of ensuring labor discipline were developed in an axiomatic coordinate system. The key characteristic of the institution of dismissal of an employee at the initiative of the employer during the 1970s and 1980s was the undesirability of termination of the employment contract. This attitude can be traced in legislation, judicial practice, scientific works, statistical data. Its reasons are explained by "staff turnover", i.e. the free movement of workers in the labor market. At the same time, in order to ensure the recovery of the national economy, disciplinary sanctions were required. The desire of the state to avoid termination of the employment contract in every possible way formed the practice of impunity, entailed a further decline in labor discipline. The author declares no conflicts of interests.