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Russia has completed the ratification of its labour agreement with India, with both countries signing the document on Monday (October 12). The agreement eases the procedures for hiring temporary employees and comes as Moscow seeks more Indian workers to address labour shortages.
The agreement covers Indians working in Russia and Russians employed in India under employment or service contracts. It also applies to full-time students taking temporary jobs outside their studies.
The agreement is significant for Russia, as there is a need for manpower, both qualified and unqualified. For India, it creates opportunities to export labour, increase remittance inflows, and somewhat ease the social burden on the country’s broader system of governance. This is indicative of the mutual institutionalisation of the cooperation on labour mobility between the two countries, and as a result there will be further increases in the number of Indian workers going to Russia.
Russia has estimated an immediate shortage of at least 2.3 million workers in the country. Sberbank, its largest bank, has called for easier entry procedures for Indian workers to help address shortages in the construction industry.
India sees itself as a talent pool for the global economy for the coming decades and is actively pursuing the opportunities for educational and labour migration with all its key partners.
Igor Gundobin and Lydia Kulik, researchers at the India Lab at the Moscow School of Management have written an academic report on the subject, titled ‘Human Capital in India and Russia: In Search for Complementarity’. They say that “the strategies of India and Russia are thus complementary, and their demographic structures are mutually reinforcing. Russia is facing a labour shortage, which has become the main factor holding back economic development.”
Kulik said that “These agreements are the first ones of their kind. They are framework documents setting very important parameters for future engagement between the two countries in the labour movement. There is still a lot that needs to be done between the two countries to make the process of employment efficient and transparent. This includes setting up robust digital networks and adapting employees and their employers to working responsibly.”
Workers will still need employment permits and must work in the jobs for which those permits were issued. The agreement requires foreign employees to receive pay and working conditions no less favourable than those offered to local workers in comparable positions.
Employees laid off because of business closures or staff reductions will be entitled to compensation under local laws. Pension, social security, and medical insurance provisions will also be governed by host-country legislation and applicable bilateral agreements.
The agreement will formally take effect once both governments complete the required domestic procedures and exchange written notifications. The treaty was ratified by the Duma on October 1. Moscow agreed to accept around 70,000 skilled Indian workers in 2026, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar had told an Indian parliamentary panel earlier this month.
