Page:The Labor Laws of Soviet Russia (1920).pdf/13

 Commissariat, all wage scales, working hours, and other matters relating to employment."

Final decision in all these matters, says Mr. Eyre, is vested in the government. "In practice, however, it is highly improbable that the Soviet administration would deny any of the powerful unions' demands unless they were fantastically exorbitant."

4. Mr. Redfield is grieved over the fact that in Soviet Russia a wage earner is not allowed to work for pay during his leave of absence, (Sections 106 and 107.) The Soviet laws assure to every wage earner one month's vacation in every year, provided that all time which he was unemployed and drawing his regular wage in the form of unemployed benefits is charged to his annual leave. If he were permitted to engage in work for pay during his vacation he would, in effect, be drawing double pay. A former Secretary of Commerce might be expected to know that under the departmental rules obtaining in Washington, D. C., no government employee is permitted to hold two positions and draw two salaries at the same time, even though he may do the work of one during the time of his annual leave. Thus the Soviet government has merely introduced in its institutions the rule which has been enforced in the United States government so long "that memory runneth not to the contrary."

There are very good reasons for this rule in Soviet Russia. In case of illness the government pays to the worker a sick benefit which is equal to his regular wages. (Appendix to Section 5, rules concerning payment of sick benefits subsidies to wage earners during illness, Sections 1, 2