Press Release, 10.04.2020

Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov sent an appeal to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin asking him to adopt a decree on the protection of delivery service employees and volunteers of social services. According to the head of the party, this document is needed against the background of increasing risks that these categories of citizens are exposed to during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In particular, the majority of delivery service workers, according to the party leader, are self-employed or work without formalization of labour or civil law relations. They are deprived of any guarantees, including insurance and protection against the risk of infection.

To protect these categories of citizens, Nikolai Rybakov called for the adoption of a decree which would guarantee for volunteers and couriers protection of health, including sanitary and epidemiological protection, as well as guarantee provision of social insurance, social protection, catering and recreation.

In addition, there has been coming information from different regions of Russia about the detention of employees of delivery services by police officers. In his appeal, the head of Yabloko also asked the police not to interfere with the activities of couriers and volunteers, but, on the contrary, to assist them during the performance of their job duties.

“The Yabloko party believes that the state should provide not only decent living conditions for citizens who are in self-isolation and quarantine, but also guarantee protection of the labour and social rights of those people who help create these conditions for them,” Rybakov emphasised in his appeal.

The Yabloko party has developed a program of socio-economic and political measures to overcome the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The program consists of four blocks: support for the health care system, support for citizens, support for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as a number of political measures, such as, for example, refusing to vote on constitutional amendments. At the end of March, the document was sent to the country’s leadership.

It should be noted that the Yabloko party has developed a programme of socio-economic and political measures to overcome the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The programme consists of four blocks: support for the health care system, support for citizens, support for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as a number of political measures, such as, for example, abolishing of the all-Russia vote on Vladimir Putin’s constitutional amendments. At the end of March, the document was was sent to the President, the Government and the parliament.