Soviet Archives - Collection of Government Documents on Workers

From the Collection of enactment and decrees of the government for 1921, Administration of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR

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Article No. 142.

Decree of the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars .

Regulations on Disciplinary Comradeships.

In order to raise labor discipline and labor productivity to the highest limits, the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars, in amending the previously published regulation (1919, No. 56, Art. 537 ), decides to put into effect the following:

1.                   Local Disciplinary Comrades Courts are established at the Provincial Councils of Trade Unions (Gubprofsovets) and at the County Bureaus of Trade Unions (Uprofburo), and their competence extends to all enterprises and institutions of R.S.F.S.R., without exception, as workers and employees, as well as administrative and technical and senior union personnel.

2.                   The organization of the Disciplinary Comrades Courts, the establishment of their number, staffing, procedure and reporting form is assigned to the All‐Russian Central Council of Trade Unions (AUCCTU).

The Disciplinary Courts of Comrades are maintained at the expense of the Republic as estimated by the All‐Russian Central Council of Trade Unions.

Note . The number of Local Disciplinary Courts of Comradeship is determined depending on the number of enterprises and the number of workers in the counties by the County Bureau of Trade Unions with the approval of the Provincial Council of Trade Unions, and in the provincial cities ‐ by the Provincial Councils of Trade Unions by agreement with the Boards of the respective Trade Unions.

3.                   The Chairmen of Local Disciplinary Comrades Courts and their deputies are elected at meetings of the County Bureau of Trade Unions and the Provincial Council of Trade Unions, members of the Court and candidates are elected: one by the governing body of the group or local plant management, and the other at the general meeting of the members of the Union of that enterprise or institution, case which are subject to consideration.

4.                   The Provincial Disciplinary Comrade Court, organized at the Provincial Council of Trade Unions, as a second instance, acts in the composition of: the Chairman, elected by the Provincial Council of Trade Unions, and members ‐ a representative from the Provincial

Council of National Economy and one of the chairmen of the Local Disciplinary Comrade Court, participating in the session in turn.

A representative of the Provincial Council of Peopleʹs Judges participates in meetings of the Provincial Comradesʹ Disciplinary Court.

5. The President, members of the Court and candidates are elected for a 6‐month term. However, in case of inconsistency with their appointment, the designated persons may be recalled by the bodies that have elected them even before the expiration of their term of office.

6. Meetings of the Comradesʹ Disciplinary Court take place periodically, publicly, outside working hours and their decisions are announced in the enterprise or institution.

Note . Meetings of the Local Disciplinary Court of Comrades, as a general rule, take place directly in a factory, plant or institution.

7. The right to bring before the Disciplinary Comrades Court belongs to: trade union bodies, central and local plant management or institution. Individual members of the trade union are granted this right only through the factory committees or higher bodies of the trade unions.

8. The offenses subject to the jurisdiction of the Comrades Disciplinary

Court are:

a)   being late for work, being absent from the place of work or leaving it earlier than the established period without good reason;

b)   truancy without good reason;

c)    an action that distracts from the work of other employees prevents it;

d) negligent attitude towards their duties, in particular, faulty work,

i.e. production of low‐quality products, as well as damage due to negligence of materials, machines, etc .;

e)   failure to develop labor productivity standards without good reason;

f)    non‐observance of the rules of cleanliness and safety in enterprises or institutions;

g)   violation of the established labor protection rules;

i) performing outside work during office hours;

i)      hooliganism, obscenity and rudeness in an enterprise or institution or during work;

j)      failure to comply with official orders of higher authorities and persons;

k)    refusal to work or unauthorized abandonment of it;

l)      rude and inattentive attitude towards visitors;

m) violation of current tariff regulations;

o)      connivance      at      violation      of      discipline      and      obvious

indiscriminateness in the rational use of labor forces;

o)                  small assignments related to work in the enterprise, if they are not organized and systematic;

p)                  minor abuses committed in the issuance and distribution of basic necessities or allowances in the enterprise;

c) violation of the established internal regulations and other misconduct not provided for by this regulation.

9. Exemplary types of punishments imposed by the Disciplinary

Comrade Courts:

a) warning note about subsequent penalties:

b) a reprimand with the announcement of such an enterprise, institution or in print;

c) lowering the piece‐rate bonus or bonus in kind, up to and including its deprivation for a certain period;

d) working off missed time overtime and on holidays with or without overtime pay;

e) awarding to various kinds of lesson and extracurricular work within the enterprise or institution;

f)   transfer to a lower position with payment of the lowest wage rate for up to 3 months;

g) prohibition to hold elective and responsible positions in a given enterprise or institution for up to 6 months;

h) dismissal from an enterprise or institution with deprivation of voting rights in union organizations for up to 6 months with notification of the relevant authorities;

i)   transfer to heavy forced labor without imprisonment in the same enterprise or outside it through the Bureau of Forced Labor for up to

6 months;

j) transfer to a concentration camp for up to 6 months.

10.                The Disciplinary Comrades Court is not deprived of the right to apply other types of punishment, in terms of their severity not exceeding those listed in Art. 9 of this provision, guided by considerations of the role of the Disciplinary Comrades Court as a production and educational institution.

11.                Decisions of the Comrades Local Disciplinary Court may be appealed against through the subject Comrades Local Disciplinary Court to the Provincial Comrades Disciplinary Court within 3 days from the date of the announcement of the decision at the Court session. The decisions of the Provincial Companionship Disciplinary

Court are final and immediately enforced.

Note . The Local Disciplinary Tribunal has the right, in urgent undisputed cases, to issue a special order for the immediate execution of its decision, despite its appeal by the accused.

12.                If the misdemeanors, by their nature or consequences, deserve a more severe punishment than those provided for by this regulation, or if they are not subject to the Disciplinary Comradesʹ Court, then such are referred to the Peopleʹs Court.

13.                In respect of minors, the Disciplinary Comrades Courts apply all measures of influence listed in paragraphs. “A” ‐ “z” art. 9 of this provision, and in cases where, during the examination of the case, the defectiveness of a minor or his misconduct requires the use of more serious measures of influence, the case is sent in accordance with the decree on the Commission on Minors Affairs (1920, No. 13, Article 83 )

...

14.                The Disciplinary Comrades Court is granted the right to early release the persons sentenced by them from the camp or from forced labor, on the basis of the current rules on early release (1921, No. 22, Art. 138 ).

15.                The Disciplinary Comrades Court carries out inquiries and examinations both directly through individual members of the Court and through the bodies of Trade Unions and other workersʹ organizations.

16.                The Disciplinary Comrades Court has the right to demand from all institutions and officials the materials, certificates, documents, etc. necessary for the Court. The relevant Soviet authorities are obliged to unswervingly comply with the decisions of the Comrades

Disciplinary Courts.

17.                General management and supervision of the activities of the Comrades Disciplinary Court is carried out by the All‐Russian Central Council of Trade Unions with the participation of the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Justice.

18.                The procedure for litigation in the Comrade Disciplinary Court, regulation of the jurisdiction of certain categories of cases and punitive practice of the Comrade Disciplinary Court, as well as the procedure for simplified extrajudicial penalties for minor disciplinary offenses are determined by special instructions issued by the AllRussian Central Council of Professional Unions by agreement Council of National Economy and Peopleʹs Commissariat of Justice.

Signed by:

Chairman of the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars V. Ulyanov (Lenin) .

N. Gorbunov, Administrator of the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars .

L. Fotieva, Secretary of the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars .

April 5, 1921

Published in No. 93 Izvestia of the All‐Russian Central Executive

Committee of April 29, 1921.