WORKPLACE AND LEGAL CULTURE OF EMPLOYEES AND EMPLOYERS IN RUSSIA: MODERN CHALLENGES THROUGH THE LENS OF HISTORY

Abstract

The work is aimed at examining the issues related to the impact of the industry-specific workplace and
legal culture on enforcing labor law standards in Russia. The focus is on historical continuity of national
legal culture phenomena and its negative aspects that hinder enforcement of labor law standards
in practice. The research was conducted with a comparative-historical diachronic approach using
sociological method tools within the general framework of an anthropological approach. Based on the
results of the research, the structural elements of the industry-specific legal culture were identified, its
manifestations for employees and employers as labor market key players were described. The essence
of each element is described as well. Parallels are drawn between the status of legal consciousness and
legal literacy in the context of free employment in the age of factory-and-plant legislation and nowadays.
The concept of historical consistency, implicitness of some workplace culture factors that have been
distorting enforcement of labor legislation for more than two hundred centuries is presented. The
major factors include low legal literacy of employees and employers, disregard for legal provisions, the
penchant of Russian citizens for non-legal regulators of employment relations, inflated paternalistic
expectations, legal indifferentism by employment contract parties, social alienation of employees and
employers, and employee’s refusal to defend their labor rights in case of violation. It is concluded
that existing defects of legal consciousness and legal illiteracy need to be taken into account in normsetting work in order to avoid the issue of the poor effectiveness of labor law standards in Russia.