Improving Management Practices of Long-Distance Commuting in the Russian Arctic Zone: The Case of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)

Abstract

Development of regional infrastructure, mining operations and trade volumes in the Russian Arctic zone requires a significant supply of human capital, which Arctic regions are currently unable to provide on their own. This demand in areas of low population density has the potential to be met by long-distance commuting (LDC)—a type of temporary labor migration to remote territories. However, not all politicians, civil servants and scientists consider LDC to be a suitable model for the development of the regions, and the number of mentions in the media of violations of commuters’ labor rights continues to grow annually. If the legislative acts on LDC have loopholes, which unscrupulous employers can use to save on costs, the expansion of the use of LDC in the Arctic could lead to a corresponding increase in the number of violations of the rights of commuters.

The aim of the present research is to assess the organization of LDC in the Russian Arctic zone in order to provide recommendations on a possible improvement of this process by the state. The following methods of data collection and analysis were employed: a desktop study of legal regulations, content analysis of media publications and interviews with government officials and researchers from the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

The results of the study confirmed gaps in the legislation on LDC. For example, the very notion of LDC is absent in federal law, and LDC is not sufficiently distinguished from seasonal work, the regulation of which is poorly detailed. Furthermore, based on the experience of managing LDC in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), a number of additional recommendations were made regarding the combination of a stationary development model and a LDC method. In particular, the use of trilateral agreements between a region, a municipality, and the company wishing to carry out its activities in a particular territory, as well as ethnological expertise, may prove useful for building relationships between local residents and businesses in other parts of Russia.