Russian-based expats are facing contract changes and lower compensation packages as businesses try to save money while Russian workers upskill. 

Recruiter Antal Russia, which recently conducted a survey of about 80 expats working in the country, found more than 30% of the foreign workers were now on ‘localised’ contracts and receiving the same pay as their Russian counterparts. 

Previously, expats generally enjoyed larger compensation packages to take into account financial responsibilities in their home countries and housing, schooling or hardship allowances, for example.

This was typically because they had greater skills than their Russian counterparts, but that is starting to even out, according to Antal Russia. 

Also, they were often paid in another currency, typically the euro or a mixture of that currency and the Russian rouble. Under a localised contract they are only paid in roubles. In fact 14% of the respondents said the currency of their salary had recently changed. Most of the respondents work in international companies. 

Antal Russia managing director Michael Germershausen said some expat chief executives were considering asking their employers to adjust down their foreign currency denominated income, as turnover in the Russian arm of the business was “taking a dive”.

The idea behind this was both to show support for the business and pre-empt planned staff redundancies. 

Germershausen said depending on how large extra payouts to foreign staff were, and how much further the rouble falls, “the number of foreigners working in Russia will adjust”. 

He added: “Let’s hope that the comment one of the expats surveyed made – ‘it is reaching the point where it is definitely not worth working here’ – is not too close to reality.”

According to data from Russia’s Federal Migration Service, the number of foreign workers in Russia from the US and Western Europe is down 34%, compared with January 2014.

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