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Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia calls for guaranteed first jobs for young people

Labour 20 Summit delegates recommended to pay special attention to vocational education of young people

MOSCOW, July 17 (Itar-Tass) - The Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR) has called for guaranteed first jobs for young people.

“We call for guaranteed first jobs for citizens who received vocational education, secondary or higher. We are discussing this problem at the Tripartite Commission (government, employers and trade unions),” FNPR chairman, Mikhail Shmakov, told the Labour 20 Summit on Wednesday.

Vocational education was one of the main themes on the summit’s agenda.

Shmakov said delegates recommended G20 governments “to pay special attention to vocational education of young people and organization of full-fledged and decent training for those persons, who received vocational education.”

“Undoubtedly, youth unemployment in some countries goes off the scale. In Europe’s “olive belt” it is twice as high as compared to other countries. In Greece it is up to 60 percent,” the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Alexander Shokhin, said.

He added that Russia’s unemployment rate is 5.5 percent.

However, “many Russian companies are dealing with a workforce surplus resolving social tasks,” Shokhin said.

He saw the way out of the existing situation in increasing geographic mobility of Russian citizens.

“However, in our conditions, when people have their flat and a kindergarten nearby, it is not easy to change a job, because living arrangements also require finances,” he said.

General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, Sharan Burrow, said up to 200 million jobless are registered in the global economy, of them 50 million are in Europe. She noted that 45 million jobs a year should be created on a global scale to secure jobs for young men and women.

The Labour 20 Summit takes place on the eve of the social partners’ consultations with the G20 Labour Ministers and two days prior to the Joint G20 Finance and Labour Ministers’ Meeting. It is organized by the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES Moscow) together with the L20.