Communicating the Social Responsibility of Big Business in Russia: Assessing How Large Companies Report Their Engagement in Social Welfare for People with Disabilities

Abstract

This essay investigates how large companies in Russia communicate their engagement with the social welfare of people with disabilities. We analysed non-financial reports and studied how people with disabilities are addressed with regard to internal social policies and corporate social responsibility activities. We asked about the content and meaning of the reporting and built a typology of companies’ reported activities regarding welfare and inclusion in the workplace and in wider society. We attribute differences between the company groups to legacies of the Soviet welfare system, the characteristics of industrial sectors and the nature of state–business relationships in Russia.

Acknowledgements

This essay was prepared within the framework of the Basic Research Program at HSE University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Federal Register of Persons with Disabilities, 2021, available at: https://sfri.ru/, accessed 8 December 2022.

2 This article was prepared before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

3 Federal Register of Persons with Disabilities, 2021, available at: https://sfri.ru/, accessed 6 December 2021.

4 See also Biermann et al. (2017).

5 See also Meyer and Bromley (2013).

6 Disability in Sustainability Reporting. Reporting Using the GRI Standards, 2019, pp. 9–10, available at: https://disabilityhub.eu/sites/disabilitybub/files/gri_disability_reporting_0.pdf, accessed 8 December 2022.

7 Rasporyazhenie pravitel’stva Rossiiskoi Federatsii ot 5 Maya 2017g. № 876-р, 2017, available at: http://static.government.ru/media/files/jyIP6Zj9fv4oEbAuVI8V03jxk9r9JIQf.pdf, accessed 8 December 2022.

8 ‘Ukaz Prezidenta Rossiiskoi Federatsii ot 21 iyulya 2020 N 474 “O natsional’nykh tselyakh razvitiya Rossiiskoi Federatsii na period do 2030 goda”’, available at: https://rg.ru/2020/07/22/ukaz-dok.html, accessed 8 December 2022.

9 Federal’nyi zakon Rossiiskoi Federatsii No. 181-FZ ‘“O sotsial’noi zashchite invalidov v Rossiiskoi Federatsii” ot 15 Noyabrya 1995’, available at: http://base.consultant.ru/cons/cgi/online.cgi?req=doc;base=LAW;n=132981, accessed 8 December 2022.

10 ‘Voluntary National Review of the Progress Made in the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’, Analytical Centre for the Government of the Russian Federation, available at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/26962VNR_2020_Russia_Report_English.pdf, accessed 8 December 2022.

11 ‘Pervonachal’nyi doklad Rossiiskoi Federatsii o vypolnenii Konventsii o pravakh invalidov “O merakh, prinyatykh dlya osushchestvleniya obyazatel’stv po Konventsii o pravakh invalidov, i o progresse, dostignutom v soblyudenii prav invalidov v techenie dvukh let posle ee vstupleniya v silu dlya Rossiiskoi Federatsii”’, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, 2014, available at: https://bezbarierov.permkrai.ru/sites/default/files/Нормативно-правовые%20документы/Раздел%201/1.%20Международные%20нормативные%20правовые%20акты/Первоначальный%20доклад%20Российской%20Федерации%20о%20выполнении%20Конвенции%20о%20правах%20инвалидов.pdf, accessed 8 December 2022.

12 ‘Trudoustroistvo ludei s invalidnost’yu’, Perspektiva, 2016, p. 13, available at: https://perspektiva-inva.ru/jobs/47-jobs-publications/3760-2017-08-24-14-07-34, accessed 8 December 2022.

13 ‘Polozhenie invalidov’, Federal State Statistics Service, 2021, available at: https://rosstat.gov.ru/folder/13964, accessed 8 December 2022.

14 ‘Master Tables Concerning EU 2020: Year 2018’, European Disability Expertise, 2020, available at: https://www.disability-europe.net/downloads/1046-ede-task-2-1-statistical-indicators-tables-eu-silc-2018, accessed 8 December 2022.

15 For details on the company see, Finmarket.ru, available at: http://www.finmarket.ru/database/organization/?fid=86512, accessed 13 December 2022.

16 ‘Design for All aims to enable all people to have equal opportunities to participate in every aspect of society. To achieve this, the built environment, everyday objects, services, culture and information—in short, everything that is designed and made by people to be used by people—must be accessible, convenient for everyone in society to use and responsive to evolving human diversity’ (EIDD 2004).

17 A voluntary agreement of businesses to align their strategies and operations for protecting human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, and to advance the UN SDGs.

18 Disability in Sustainability Reporting. Reporting Using the GRI Standards, 2019, p. 11, available at: https://disabilityhub.eu/sites/disabilitybub/files/gri_disability_reporting_0.pdf, accessed 8 December 2022.

19 ‘Premiya za inklyuzivnoe trudoustroistvo’, perspektiva-inva.ru, available at: https://perspektiva-inva.ru/news/premiya-za-inklyuzivnoe-trudoustrojstvo/, accessed 11 December 2022.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christian Fröhlich

Christian Fröhlich, National Research University Higher School of Economics, School of Sociology, 20 Myasnitzkaya Street, 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: [email protected]

Viktoria Antonova

Viktoria Antonova, National Research University Higher School of Economics, School of Sociology, 20 Myasnitzkaya Street, 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: [email protected]

Anna Sinelnikova

Anna Sinelnikova, National Research University Higher School of Economics, School of Sociology, 20 Myasnitzkaya Street, 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: [email protected]