Belarusian Prime Minister Alyaksandr Turchyn has demanded that the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection regulate wage levels. He made the statement at a meeting of the ministry’s board.
“Wage growth must depend on labour efficiency, not on external factors!” the government press service quoted him as saying.
It should be noted that during a recent government report, Alyaksandr Lukashenka had already pointed out that wage growth rates in the country are outpacing labour productivity growth.
Turchyn also demanded the development of a clear strategy for managing labour resources. It should include:
- work with all categories of people not employed in the economy,
- an algorithm for attracting labour, including foreign labour, designed with economic efficiency and organisational and social consequences in mind,
- ways to eliminate staff shortages and ensure their rational distribution.
“In the current demographic conditions, the need to ensure the effective use of available labour resources comes to the forefront. Together with the Ministry of Education, it is necessary to take regulatory and incentive measures to ensure the rapid integration of university and vocational school graduates into the workforce,” the prime minister stressed.
The Ministry of Labour should also optimise qualification requirements and address labour standardisation issues.
“First of all, their updating in the context of a changing labour market. It is necessary to bring qualification characteristics of positions and professions into line with the real needs of the economy,” he said.
The prime minister also demanded that the ministry influence the mental attitudes of young people as part of the implementation of the programme “Development of Demographic Potential” for 2026–2030.
“The most important task at present is to identify those points that we can really regulate in order to stimulate birth rates and influence the mental attitudes and behavioural models of young people,” he said.
He also focused attention on bureaucratic procedures faced by people in need of social services. In his view, the system of state benefits and pensions needs to be digitised at an accelerated pace.
“The benefits for citizens, state structures and business are enormous. People do not need to collect stacks of documents and go from office to office — the system itself will see, for example, the fact of a child’s birth and initiate benefit payments. This will eliminate paperwork and save millions of person-hours. By introducing digitalisation, we free up a huge time resource, reduce costs on a national scale and create convenience for our citizens,” he said.