The causes of social and labor conflicts in the fi re service divisions

The article reveals the problem of social and labor confl icts in the units of the fi re service. The theoretical basis of the study was the classical postulates on the nature of social contradictions and the role of confl icts in everyday practices of the service team, proposed within the structural-functional approach by G. Simmel and R. Darendorff . The article is based on the results of the author's study of social and labor confl icts in one of the fi re and rescue units of Saratov region. The paper analyzed the problems that provoke social and labor confl icts, such as: living conditions at work (poorly functioning common areas, lack of suffi cient sleeping space, problems with maintaining a comfortable temperature in the rooms); unfair distribution of uniforms, means of personal consumption; poor material provision of the unit (broken equipment, insuffi cient provision of protective equipment); shifting responsibility for equipment repair from unit management to staff and civilian personnel, inconsistency of assignments with job duties; unfair distribution of workload; violation of safety requirements when fi ghting fi res; ignorance of rules necessary for fi re and rescue work; non-compliance with work and rest regimes; low level of discipline; personal animosity; team leadership style (yelling, disrespectful attitude, rudeness of the superiors towards the subordinates); psychological incompatibility in the guardhouse; constant stressful situations in the workplace; diff erent perceptions of their work on the part of young and middle-aged and older staff ; the nature of the staff ; the use of property and equipment by other units in fi re and rescue work (breakage, loss). In the course of the questionnaire survey and the results of the interview the author found out the main reasons of the confl ict situations inside the guard-house, marked the problem areas potentially able to raise the latent situation of dissatisfaction of the personnel to the level of open confl ict.