Provisional Government, Statute on Factory Committees. April 23, 1917
Original Source: Sobranie uzakonenii i rasporiazhenii raboche-krestian’skogo pravitel’stva, 1917, No. 1:1, No. 551.
Law of the Provisional Government
The Provisional Government has decreed:
I. In amendment of relevant legislation the following statute on workers’ committees in industrial enterprises is approved:
1 Workers’ committees shall be set up in private as well as in state industrial enterprises of every kind (factories and plants, mining, metallurgical, construction trades, etc.), observing the rules set forth in the following articles of the present Statute.
2. Workers’ committees may be set up both for the industrial enterprise as a whole and for its individual workshops, factory shops, departments, crafts, production lines, etc. The individual committees may unite in a central committee according to rules established by an Instruction.
The committees shall be set up either on the initiative of not less than one-tenth of the total number of workers eligible to elect members of the committee, or on the initiative of the administration of the enterprise.
3. The committee shall consist of members elected by the workers of the enterprise on the basis of a universal-not excepting women and minors-equal, direct, and secret vote.
4. For the elections to be valid, not less than half of all the workers of the entire enterprise or the particular workshop, factory shop, department, craft, production lines, etc., must participate in them.
5. A list of the committee members shall be communicated to the administration of the industrial enterprise for information.
6. Members of the committee may be dismissed by the administration of the enterprise only by decision of conciliatory institutions. Their removal before such decision may occur only with the agreement of the committee. In the absence of permanent conciliatory institutions, the question shall be settled by means of arbitration.
7 The workers’ committee shall prepare an Instruction defining the composition, duties, and procedure of the committee. The Instruction shall provide in particular: 1) the number of delegates by categories, factory shops, departments, workshops, etc., or from the entire industrial enterprise; 2) the procedure for the election of delegates and their alternates (the method, place, and time of balloting); 3) the term of office of delegates and their alternates; 4) the procedure for the recall of individual delegates or all delegates before the expiry of their term of office; 5) the procedure for the election of the chairman and other members of the presidium of the committee; 6) the relations between the individual committees, if such exist, and between individual committees and the central committee of the industrial establishment; 7) the channel of communications between the committee and the administration of the enterprise; 8) the conditions and procedure for the release of delegates from work during the time required to perform their duties; 9) the fundamental rights and duties of delegates and other regulations which prove necessary, depending on local conditions.
The Instruction prepared by the committee shall be subject to approval by the general meeting of workers and, on approval, shall be displayed in the working premises.
Note: In the election of the first workers’ committee, the number of committee members, the procedure for their election and terms of office shall be determined by the general meeting of the workers of the entire enterprise or its workshop, factory shop, department, craft, production lines, etc., as appropriate.
8. The provisions of the Instruction defining the relations between the committee and the administration of the enterprise in particular, the channel of communications of the committee with the administration, the conditions and procedure for release of delegates from work during the time required to perform their duties, and the place and time of elections-shall be the subject of a preliminary discussion at a joint meeting of the committee and representatives of the administration of the enterprise, and shall be established by mutual agreement of both sides.
9. The duties of the workers’ committees shall be: a) representation of the workers to the administration of the enterprise on questions concerning relations between the employers and workers, as, for example, on salaries, working hours, rules of internal organization, etc.; b) settlement of questions concerning internal relations among the workers of the enterprise; c) representation of the workers in their relations with government and public institutions; d) cultural and educational activity among the workers of the enterprise and other measures designed to improve their existence.
10. Individual workers shall not be deprived of the right to act personally in the cases mentioned in article IX (paras. a and b), each for himself, without recourse to the committee.
11. The committee shall inform the workers of the results of the election, of its activity, of forthcoming meetings, etc., by means of notices displayed on the working premises.
12. The committee shall be authorized to call meetings of the workers. The administration of the enterprise shall be required to set aside premises or a place at its disposal for meetings called by the committee.
14. Meetings called by the committee shall, as a general rule, be held outside of working hours.
15. Managerial and clerical employees of an industrial enterprise either may establish separate committees, following the rules laid down in the present Statute, or, by agreement with the workers, may participate on an identical basis in the election of workers’ committees.
16. All disputes arising between the administration of the enterprise and workers and employees in the application of the present Statute shall be referred, at the wish of one of the parties, to conciliatory institutions for consideration.
II. Earlier labor legislation is abrogated.
Prince L’vov, Minister-President
A. Konovalov, Minister of Trade and Industry
Vlad. Nabokov, Head of Chancellery of the Provisional Government
Source: Robert Paul Browder and Alexander F. Kerensky, eds., The Russian Provisional Government, 1917: Documents (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1961), Vol. II, pp. 718-720.