Belarusian Authorities Go Against Common Sense

What's wrong with the mandatory work placement of graduates in Belarus.

Belarus remains the only country in Europe where forced employment of young specialists on a mass scale still exists. This practice has been preserved since Soviet times, and has become more severe since the 2000s.

Many Belarusian graduates find themselves in the role of serfs and are forced to work literally for a bed and food. At the same time, the mandatory work placement practice clearly contradicts the basic laws of the country and common sense.

Article 30 of the Constitution states: “Citizens of the Republic of Belarus have the right to move freely and choose their place of residence”.

Article 41 notes that citizens are guaranteed “the right to choose a profession, occupation and work”, and “forced labor is prohibited”. Yes, graduates can seemingly find a job for the mandatory work placement themselves, and bring a corresponding application from an employer, but the commission can easily reject it.

Article 49 states: “Everyone can, on a competitive basis, receive the appropriate education in state educational institutions free of charge”. But if you have to work to get an education, then how can it be called free?

Officials like to repeat: if young people studied with “budget money”, then the state has the right to demand a return from them. But this is also manipulation: in fact, Belarusian families pay twice: first, their taxes go to education, and then the authorities send the youth on mandatory work placement.

Officials like to say that mandatory work placement is a “guarantee of the first job”, but they forget to specify the quality of this job. Young people often end up in the provinces in enterprises and organizations where no one wants to work. Graduates are not offered well-paid or prestigious vacancies.

Both young, recently ambitious people and their employers are demotivated: the former pretend to work (they cannot be fired), the latter pretend to pay, without thinking about increasing the attractiveness of jobs.

The fact that the mandatory work placement system is a mockery is obvious to everyone around, but only to the Belarusian authorities. Even Putin's Russia refuses to follow their example. Last year, they rejected a bill on obligatory work placement of graduates.

The arguments that were voiced: violation of the rights of young people, inconsistency with modern economic realities, the presence of a sufficient mechanism in the form of targeted training (we recall that they also train in Belarus through targeted referrals from enterprises).

Instead of abandoning the vicious practice, which only plugs holes but does not contribute to increasing the efficiency of the economy, the Belarusian authorities are going to tighten it.

Last year, Education Minister Andrei Ivanets spoke in favor of introducing mandatory work placement for fee-paying students, and a significantly bigger compensation for failure to work off the necessary period of time at the job they were placed, and Aliaksandr Lukashenka publicly spoke in favor of increasing the period of work:

— What is two years? Consider that we trained them at the university, and we also trained them at work for two years through mentoring and the experience gained.

Perhaps these ideas will still be implemented, and what has already been done is that new legislative amendments have been prepared, according to which it will be even more difficult to avoid mandatory work placement.

The Belarusian authorities are doing anything but providing young people with opportunities for self-realization.

Mark Dzyuba, Solidarity

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