Image from a Soviet stamp
From the Soviet English language magazine Socialism: Principles, Practice, Prospects, July 1983:
Citizens of the USSR have the right to work (that is, to guaranteed employment and pay in accordance with the quantity and quality of their work, and not below the state-established minimum), including the right to choose their trade or profession, type of job and work in accordance with their inclinations, abilities, training and education, with due account of the needs of society. This right is ensured by the socialist economic system, steady growth of the productive forces, free vocational and professional training, improvement of skills, training in new trades and professions, and development of the systems of vocational guidance and job placement. - - Article 40, Constitution of the USSR
The right to work has long been something every Soviet citizen takes for granted. The entire able bodied population has been guaranteed full employment.
Unemployment was ended once and for all more than fifty years ago in the USSR. The constitutions of some bourgeois states proclaim the right of their citizens to work.
However, none of them tangibly guarantees this right by obliging the state to carry out measures required to turn these declarations into a reality. This is utterly impossible to achieve under the conditions of private ownership of the means of production.
Unemployment in capitalist countries is chronic. Even in the years of economic growth the rate of unemployment is pretty high. Unemployment is the main lever for pressuring the workers. It not only results in material privation for workers but is also morally damaging.
A typical tendency under socialism is for working hours to be reduced and for leisure time to be increased. At most industrial enterprises in pre-revolutionary Russia the working day lasted 10-12 hours. Now in the USSR, the working day lasts an average of 7 hours, or 6 hours for certain categories of workers and even less, with a six-day working week.
All people employed in the national economy are guaranteed weekly days-off and reduced working hours on the eve of legal holidays and on night shifts. Overtime is limited, and totally banned for those under 18; adolescents and young people under 18 have a reduced working week of 24-36 hours (depending on age).
Taken all round, the working week for all blue- and white-collar workers is an average of 39.4 hours. This is one of the shortest working weeks in the world.
All members of a socialist society equally enjoy the right to work. Women make up 53.3 per cent of the country’s population and 51 per cent of all blue- and white-collar workers. Their wages are no different from those of men doing the same work. They enjoy the same opportunities as men in receiving education and vocational training, in labour and labour remuneration and in promotion. Women constitute 59 per cent of all specialists with higher and specialized secondary education.
No professions or trades are officially closed to women in capitalist countries. The facts, however, tell a different story. In the USA women account for 7 per cent of the total number of doctors; for 18 per cent in France, and 9 per cent in Japan. They constitute 1.9 per cent of the total number of engineers in the USA and 1.8 per cent in Japan. Women make up 12 per cent of the judiciary and 9.4 per cent of scientific personnel in the USA.
In the USSR women account for 82 per cent of all health workers, for 40 per cent of all scientific workers, 36 per cent of engineers, and 33 per cent of judges.
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