Russia to relax labour laws allowing minors to do ‘dangerous’ jobs amid manpower shortage

Amid a deepening labour shortage, the Russian government is to ease restrictions on employing teenagers in certain industries once considered too dangerous for minors, Russian news agency TASS reported on Thursday.

According to Yaroslav Nilov, who chairs the State Duma Committee on Labour, Social Policy and Veterans' Affairs, though teenagers can undertake vocational training and complete apprenticeships for such jobs, they are currently barred from taking up formal employment in the roles due to existing safety regulations.

Nilov said the new rules would come into force this summer and would “significantly reduce restrictions” on hiring teenagers in high-risk industries while continuing to protect the rights of minors.

“We’re talking about working conditions that were considered dangerous 20 years ago,” Nilov said, adding that the situation had now changed, and claiming that industries once thought to be dangerous were “safer to be in than on the street”, though he didn’t specify which sectors would be affected.

Russia’s labour shortage has intensified since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with the lack of manpower caused both by the mobilisation of Russia’s military reserve and the decision of an estimated 1 million Russians to emigrate.

According to US-based think tank the RAND Corporation, Russia’s Labour Minister Anton Kotyakov warned Vladimir Putin in 2025 that the country could face a shortage of 2.4 million workers by 2030.