Shih-Hao Kang a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology
The organisational and management structure of Russian Railways
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- Figure 2.3: The average wages in different Russian railways (2003)
2.1.2 The organisational and management structure of Russian RailwaysAs previously mentioned, the current Russian railway network system has 17 interregional routes. All of these routes until October 2003 were subordinated to the MPS, and are now under the control of the JSC Russian Railways - Russian Railways Company. For all the relevant operative works in the railway sector, there are more than 150 professions. These basically include train driving, engineer, station supervisor, electrician, mechanic, track repair worker, conductor, construction worker, station service clerk and so on. In 2001, the total employment within the Russian railway system was about 1 million 590 thousand workers, which included 54 thousand workers for capital repair (kapital’nii remont) and 20 thousand construction workers. To manage such a huge industrial organisation, there were indeed complicated administrative organs established within the network system as well as part of the governmental organs. The basic work organisations related to the productive operation of the rail industry were distributed as follows: 1) Department of transportation management 2) Department of locomotive facilities 3) Department of cargo and commercial works 4) Department of carload facilities 5) Department of passenger communication / services 6) Department of tracks and construction 7) Department of signal system, centralisation and blocking 8) Department of electrification and power supply.44 All of these departments were integrated into units structured by three levels: ministerial; railroad; regional branches.45 Therefore, even at the headquarters of the Ministry we can still see a pile of swollen establishments. They were divided into production and economic management parts. Corresponding to these establishments there was enormous bureaucratic personnel: the minister and a dozen of his deputies controlled about 20 departments. For the central ministerial level, the prior and the most important function of the Russian railway industry was to guarantee the unity of the enormous networks of the Russian railway system. It was also then to be responsible for the general performance of the railways in the country, as well as the budget balance, construction projects and communication with the national railways of its neighbouring countries. It is also interesting to note, according to the ‘Law on Railway Transport’, that in the field of employees’ working conditions the central administration had responsibility for negotiating and signing the Sectoral Tariff Agreement (OTS). Below the administration of the former MPS, to deal with such an enormous interregional railway system the practical management of the operation of each railroad actually relies on the railroad administration. The administrations do not have to meet any competition among them; their responsibilities are rather to decrease the difficulty of controlling such enormous, complicated networks. The road administrations still face dealing with huge territories of their railroad network, and of managing its considerable quantity of various properties which are located in different regions (such as cultural palaces, hospitals, museums and publications etc.). In practice, the administrative unit of the railroad level, formally established as a state unitary enterprise (Gosudarstvennoe unitarnoe predpriyatie, GUP), was left to take charge of the general dimensions of the service and policies for the transport productivity of each railroad, and of coordination with the regional organisations. They are also responsible for the railroad employment and the material benefits of their railroad employees. Formally, their decisions should be subordinated to the general guidance of the former MPS. Most of these functions have now been taken over by the new Russian Railway Company. Under the railway authority, there are again a set of regional branches distributed by the consideration of (sub) routes and geographic conditions. Within these regional branches, almost each depot or shop has its own buildings, its own facilities. And almost each category of professional duties has its own administration and head (Nachal’nik). These primary heads have the power of defining their workers’ jobs, duties, holidays and wages, as well as the control of those state properties. The arrangements of various related units or even fiscal spaces are very different. And the reality of railroad management is very different from what is required in the various instructions, laws and regulations. In matters such as the location of the employees’ refectory or the condition of rest places, it seems there is no clear obligation to follow any particular workplace arrangement. That eventually allows each unit to generate its own specific culture (environment). Such a factor reflects one essential character: in everyday railroad works, the real managerial power is also in the hands of each depot or shop chief. Take the organisational structure of the October Railway as an example: on the administrative board, there were in total 11 chiefs, and six (or seven) of them are in charge of the work of transport operations. Generally, their duties follow the original assignment as at the Ministerial level except for a few differences for field practice. The post of general engineer, for example, was assigned to the Railway. The October Railway has six regional branches: Moscow, St Petersburg, Murmansk, St Petersburg-Petrozavod, St Petersburg-Viteb and Volkhovstroev. These branches are distributed by different executive regions, except that two of them are in the stations of St Petersburg city. Each regional branch still covers a huge territory and has a great number of scattered units. Employees from the same branch with different professions though carry out their duties around the same area and do not come into contact with their fellow colleagues in other units. There may be geographical reasons: some depots are located in the city and have access to city roads; others are isolated in remote areas where a handful of security guards can easily see people who come or go. In other situations, some units are more sensitive over the consideration of ‘being a state strategic resource’, some are not. More importantly, the authority of real managerial power varies in different units. Workplace discipline is not only imposed by the headquarters but also by the heads of branches or immediate work management (depots, shops). Workers face different atmospheres in different units depending on the attitudes of the immediate management, although most of the time they only deal with or confront the heads of their units. For example, in locomotive depots TCh-8 and TCh-12, one gives the ‘free’ trade union the right to keep the trade union office by using the Railroad’s resources; the other does not. By and large, most workplace problems or disputes are directed toward the management of the depot or shop heads. (Such factors even affect workplace observation. Some depots or shops may be open for outsiders while other depots may not be). Figure 2.3: The average wages in different Russian railways (2003)
Data source: JSC Russian Railways (Author selected) Directory: russia russia -> 852 The year when the timeline of the Primary Chronicle starts russia -> Airborne Troops (vdv) russia -> To me this is all the cards I would read (if necessary) in my 2nc russia -> Syllabus form russia -> Russian, us military planes in near miss over Syria russia -> 10: 00am–5: 00pm Participant List russia -> Russia’s Strategy in the Arctic: Cooperation, not confrontation Download 2.45 Mb. Share with your friends:
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