5th (EXTRAORDINARY) GCTU CONGRESS TO BE HELD
IN MOSCOW 26 MARCH 2004
GCTU Executive Meets in Moscow

A session of the GCTU Executive Committee took place in Moscow 4 December 2003.

The session scrutinised the findings of the ad hoc commission set up earlier by the Executive Committee to examine how the proposals for efficient use of GCTU property had been implemented.

Following the discussion of the Commission's report and the information on the measures being taken to eliminate the shortcomings revealed, the Executive adopted a resolution recognising that the GCTU leaders had committed grave faults in their financial and administrative activity, and in the management of GCTU property.

The Executive Committee considered the mission of the Property Commission completed, and decided it should submit all its findings to the GCTU Auditing Commission. Simultaneously, it requested the Auditing Commission to analyse the effectiveness of the exploitation of all projects in GCTU ownership.

The Executive instructed GCTU President Vladimir Scherbakov to take practical steps to improve the financial situation of the Confederation, optimise the work of its commercial undertakings, and settle all issues concerning the management of objects in joint ownership of the GCTU and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia, FNPR, by the end of December 2003.

With a view to improving the activity and structure of the GCTU and in accordance with Article 12 of the GCTU Constitution, the Executive Committee decided to call the 5th (Extraordinary) Congress of the General Confederation of Trade Unions in Moscow on the 26th of March 2004.

The agenda of the congress will include the following items:

GCTU President was charged with the responsibility of setting up a congress organising committee, based on the principle of equal representation of the national trade union centres and industrial Trade Union Internationals.

The Executive Committee approved the composition of a working party to consider the proposals for enhancing the GCTU's activity comprising GCTU Vice President Albert Potapov (coordinator) and representatives of the GCTU-affiliated national trade union centres in CIS countries and industrial Trade Union Internationals. The working team was entrusted with the task of analysing the submitted proposals concerning the future principles of GCTU activity, with regard to the present-day realities and international trade union practices.

The Executive Committee approved of the draft model law "On the Guarantees for Equal Rights and Equal Treatment of Men and Women" prepared and presented by the GCTU Commission for the Problems of Working Women. The approved draft will be forwarded to the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly in St. Petersburg for consideration and eventual adoption as a framework act for the CIS.