Attitudes Toward Coronavirus Protection Measures in Enterprises (on the Example of the Ulyanovsk Region)

The paper explores anti-COVID restrictions in Russian enterprises. It based on a series of qualitative interviews conducted with workers and experts as part of a longitudinal study in 2020-2021 in the Ulyanovsk region. We focus on three key aspects: quarantine, mask wearing, and vaccination, showing the attitudes of workers towards these measures, the degree of their acceptance or resistance to them. We conclude that restrictions were largely ineffective, but they allowed employers to increase control over staff and led to the violation of labor rights. Coercion rather than persuasion served as the primary tool for promoting anti-COVID measures. The workers did not relate the implementation of these measures to occupational safety or management’s concern about their health, but expressed a growing feeling of powerlessness. Anti-COVID restrictions are perceived to have reduced staff cohesion and to have caused the conflicts between workers and management. Informants criticized both the content of the measures and the non-systemic manner of their implementation. The paper traces how long the anti-COVID measures lasted, and what were the reasons for their cancellation.

Keywords

COVID-19, industrial enterprises, workers, anti COVID-19 measures

Acknowledgment

The reported study was funded by RFBR, project number 20-04-60221.

Received

15.05.2022

Publication date

26.09.2022

Number of characters

33904

Cite

GOST	Andreeva Y., Lukyanova E. Attitudes Toward Coronavirus Protection Measures in Enterprises (on the Example of the Ulyanovsk Region) // Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya – 2022. – Issue 8 C. 67-77 [Electronic resource]. URL: http://ras.jes.su/socis/s013216250020185-6-1-en (circulation date: 29.04.2025). DOI: 10.31857/S013216250020185-6
MLA	Andreeva, Yulia, Lukyanova, Evgenia "Attitudes Toward Coronavirus Protection Measures in Enterprises (on the Example of the Ulyanovsk Region)." Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya 8 (2022):67-77. DOI: 10.31857/S013216250020185-6
APA	Andreeva Y., Lukyanova E. (2022). Attitudes Toward Coronavirus Protection Measures in Enterprises (on the Example of the Ulyanovsk Region). Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya (8), pp.67-77 DOI: 10.31857/S013216250020185-6

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