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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No 55 Article No. 239.

Decree of the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars.

About bonuses for labor.

In view of the urgent need to establish a uniform procedure for determining the norms of both monetary and in‐kind bonuses for increasing labor productivity, the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars decides:

1. To develop a general plan for rewarding labor in the country, to form an Interdepartmental Meeting at the All‐Russian Central Council of Trade Unions, consisting of representatives of: the All Russian Central Council of Trade Unions, the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Food, the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Ways of Communication, the Supreme Council of the National Economy, the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Agriculture and the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Labor ... The same meeting should be charged with the establishment of an appropriate bonus in kind fund. On financial matters, a representative of the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Finance should also be involved in the Meeting.

The general bonus plan worked out by the Meeting, as well as the bonus fund, are subject to approval by the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars.

2. The development and establishment of systems and norms of bonuses, both monetary and in kind, within the limits of the plan and bonus funds approved by the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars (see § 1), as well as general guidance on the implementation of the bonus system, is entrusted to the All‐Russian Central Council of Professional Unions represented by the Labor Rationing Department.

Note . In case of contestation of the systems and norms of awards approved by the All‐Russian Central Council of Trade Unions by this or that Peopleʹs Commissariat, the final decision belongs to the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars.

3. From the moment of the approval of the systems and norms of bonuses, no monetary or in‐kind bonus in any enterprise or institution can be issued without the approval of the All‐Russian Central Council of Trade Unions or its local bodies.

4. The All‐Russian Central Council of Trade Unions engages the relevant Trade Unions in the form of their governing bodies in the development of bonus systems, establishing with special instructions the scope of their activities, rights and obligations, and control over the conduct of awards in the localities in the sense of their greater uniformity is assigned to the Councils of Trade Unions.

5. All questions concerning bonuses in kind or money for labor that come to the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars or the Council of Labor and Defense are considered by the latter only if there is a conclusion of the All‐Russian Central Council of Trade Unions.

6. Until the establishment of the general fund for bonuses in kind, in accordance with § 1 of this resolution, the fund for bonuses in kind for each individual case is determined by the Special Commission for Use on the proposal of the All‐Russian Central Council of Trade Unions and approval by the Chairman of the Supreme Council of National Economy and the Peopleʹs Commissar of Food.

7. The development of detailed instructions for the implementation of this resolution is entrusted to the All‐Russian Central Council of Trade Unions.

8. Persons and governing bodies of institutions or enterprises that violate the decisions of the All‐Russian Central Council of Trade Unions or their authorized organizations in terms of wages and bonuses for labor are punished as for embezzlement of state property and are subject to the Court of the Revolutionary Tribunal or the Friendly Disciplinary Court, depending on corpus delicti.

9. This decree comes into force from the date of publication.

Signed by:

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

Head of the Council of Peopleʹs Commissars V. Bonch‐Bruevich .

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

June 8, 1920.

Published in No. 124 of Izvestia of the All‐Russian Central Executive

Committee of Soviets on June 10, 1920.

On the abolition of payments for fuel from state institutions and enterprises and workers and employees employed in them. ( Izv. No.

21, S. U. 6‐45 ).