Agreement on Working Conditions
Agreement on Working Conditions in Petrograd. March 11, 1917
Two weeks after the February Revolution, the Petrograd Soviet and the city's manufacturers struck an agreement setting new labor norms. It introduced an eight-hour day (seven on Saturdays) without wage reduction and required factory-committee consent for overtime. The agreement also institutionalized elected factory committees, created parity conciliation chambers, and banned forcible removal of foremen.
Original Source: Izvestiia, No. 12, 11 March 1917, p. 1.
An agreement has been reached between the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and the Petrograd Association of Manufacturers on the introduction of an eight-hour working day in factories and mills and on the establishment of factory committees and chambers of conciliation.
I. The eight-hour working day
Pending the promulgation of the law standardizing the working day, the eight-hour working day (eight hours of actual labor), applicable to all shifts, is introduced in all factories and mills.
On Saturdays the working day is to comprise seven hours.
The reduction in working hours is to have no effect on [the amount of] workers' wages.
Overtime work is permitted only with the consent of factory committees.
Il. Factory Committees
1 . Factory committees, elected from workers of a given enterprise on the basis of universal, equal, and etc. suffrage, are to be established in all factories and mills.
- The functions of these committees are to be as follows: (a) to represent the workers in a given enterprise in their relations with government or public institutions; (b) to formulate opinions on questions pertaining to the socioeconomic life of workers in a given enterprise; (c) to settle problems arising from interpersonal relations of workers in a given enterprise; (d) to represent workers before the management in matters concerning labor-management relations.
III. Chambers of conciliation
1 . Chambers of conciliation are to be established in all mills and factories for the purpose of settling all misunderstandings arising from labor-management relations.
Note: If necessary, chambers of conciliation may be subdivided into sections, according to workshops and factory shops.
Chambers of conciliation are to consist of an equal number of elected representatives from workers and from the management of the enterprise.
The electoral procedure for the workers is to be determined by the factory committee.
Chambers of conciliation are to be in session whenever circumstances require.
In the event that an agreement between workers and employers is not reached in the chamber of conciliation, the matter is then to be carried to and settled by the Central Chamber of Conciliation.
The Central Chamber of Conciliation is to consist of an equal number of elected representatives from the Soviet of Workers' Deputies, on the one hand, and from the Association of Manufacturers, on the other.
IV. The removal of foremen and other administrative officials without examining the case in the chamber of conciliation, and their subsequent more violent removal (by physical force) are prohibited.
V. The matter of employees' status must be determined immediately.
Source: Robert Paul Browder and Alexander F. Kerensky, eds., The Russian Provisional Government, 1917: Documents (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1961), Vol. II, pp. 712-713.