HeadHunter / HH. RU
Military recruitment on HH.RU
Background
HeadHunter
HeadHunter is the leading online recruitment platform in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
It has more than 28 mln unique monthly visitors on average in a year and about 54 mln CVs in their own base. Besides the average daily number of job postings on hh.ru reaches about 933 k in a year.
Which means HeadHunter today is #1 online recruitment service in Russia by all financial and operational metrics.
According to HeadHunter Group Plc Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, they recognize their responsibility to protect human rights and fully support the fundamental principles set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (check policies here). However, contrary to these statements and contrary to its responsibilities, HeadHunter seems to do exactly the opposite.
The War
On 24 February 2022, the army of the Russian Federation invaded the independent and sovereign state of Ukraine. Since then, the Russian Federation has been waging a war against Ukraine within the latter's borders. The reported atrocities range from the complete wiping out of cities like Mariupol, to the killing of innocent civilians in Bucha and the bombing of civilian hospitals. These human rights violations cannot be tolerated; intervention is necessary.
Among others the European Court of Human Rights and the UN International Court of Justice have expressed their disapproval and qualified the actions of the Russian Federation as unlawful. The Russian Federation's invasion violates international law. The war between Ukraine and the Russian Federation must be stopped by any means possible.
Connection
HeadHunter & the War
Since 24 February, 2022, HeadHunter has been used to recruit military personnel, privateers and police to take part in the Russian invasion of Ukraine (so-called “special military operation”).
There are hundreds of vacancies on the hh.ru website for the search query military serviceman («военнослужащий»). While some of the vacancies expressly indicate that the job opening is for participation in the “special military operation” or service Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine (so-called “Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics”), others have implied indication of the same (stating the salary more than three times the national average or more than six times the military average in Russia).
Analysis of the statistics of responses to military service vacancies posted on hh.ru shows that during the military aggression launched by Russia on February 24, 2022, from 10 to 20 k troops could have been recruited into the Russian army through hh.ru. That is, HeadHunter directly helps Russia by providing it with human resources, which are a key link in Russian military aggression against Ukraine. Due to the constant flow of military and other personnel hired through hh.ru the combat capability of the Russian army, which daily commits war crimes against Ukrainians, is ensured.
However, despite the obvious illegality of the published ads and the certainly dire consequences of the recruitment of military personnel and special forces to the Russian army and the armed forces of the territories temporarily occupied in Ukraine, HeadHunter representatives refuse to remove such ads and prevent their re-publication, thereby providing substantial support to the aggressor state.
In response to our letter demanding that all existing military vacancies be removed, HeadHunter representatives said that they operate in strict compliance with all applicable laws, including Russian antitrust and consumer protection laws, under which the company has no right to refuse to post content that complies with Russian law.
HeadHunter takes the position that the vast majority of “uniformed” vacancies posted on hh.ru are essentially regular jobs that exist in any country in the world at any normal time, such as police officers, security guards, any other similar law enforcement officials. The problem is that Russia is a country that started an illegal war on the territory of Ukraine, an independent and sovereign country. Every day the Russian army commits war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine. What Russia is doing today is the genocide of the Ukrainian people. Under such conditions, vacancies for the hiring of the military and any other personnel whose duties are directly or indirectly related to Russian aggression on the territory of Ukraine are unacceptable. After all, in almost all cases, hired personnel are subsequently deployed specifically to the territory of Ukraine to participate in Russian military operations.
It is absolutely necessary to force HeadHunter to take measures to stop aid to the aggressor state, which will lead to limiting the Russian Federation's ability to recruit soldiers for the war in Ukraine through the leading online recruitment service in Russia.
The Foundation therefore intends to start legal proceedings against HeadHunter demanding that they put definitive end to all illegal advertisements posted on hh.ru.
Typical ads on HH.RU
