RuEn

Journal section "Social development"

Sociological Aspects of Rotational Employment in the Northern Territories of Western Siberia

Silin A.N.

4 (40), 2015

Silin A.N. Sociological Aspects of Rotational Employment in the Northern Territories of Western Siberia. Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast, 2015, no. 4 (40), pp. 109-123. DOI: 10.15838/esc/2015.4.40.7

DOI: 10.15838/esc/2015.4.40.7

Abstract   |   Authors   |   References
The article describes features of the lifestyle associated with rotational employment system in developing oil and gas resources of Northwestern Siberia. It shows the change in conceptual approaches to the organization of commuting, the dynamics of key parameters, the socio-cultural features of mobile and multilocal lifestyle of commuters. The consideration of the rotational method as complex and significant for the implementation of the tasks set for the Arctic and subarctic areas of Russia has allowed to reveal the interaction system of basic elements of commuting and offer more efficient tools and technologies as compared to traditional management. The author presents some results of the sociological research in the oil and gas companies located in Northwestern Siberia. The work discloses the factors of negative impact of commuting on health, physical and social well-being of people leading “double” and mobile lives. They are the following: need for long stay in closed space with strangers, differences in natural conditions of places of residence and work (pressure drops, oxygen deficiency in the North, light aperiodicity, food and water quality, cold and mosquitoes, separation from family, etc.), increased physical and emotional stress. The surveys of employees on rotation, their families and management of the enterprises using this method in the oil and gas areas of the Western-Siberian North, conducted by the author for four decades, have given the opportunity to identify the causes of people’s dissatisfaction with conditions of their life, their attitude to authorities and different aspects of organization of production and life, transportation from place of residence to place of employment and back, etc. Geography of fly-in fly-out transportation and the level of satisfaction with various elements of such work have recently changed. The priority importance of payment for labor efforts has only preserved. Besides, if in the Soviet period of development of northern oil and gas resources the workers were employed in the Middle Ob region, nowadays the fall in oil production volumes has encouraged the formed groups of workers to begin working for the development of Eastern Siberia, Yamal, etc. The article substantiates the necessity of developing new interdisciplinary research on the basis of acquired results to mitigate negative social consequences of commuting and implementing a sociological monitoring system

Keywords

commuting, multilocal lifestyle, social monitoring, northwestern siberia, circumpolar regions, oil and gas production company, arctic and subarctic

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