Duma deputies and representatives from trade unions have agreed that there are no grounds to amend current legislation since it embraces all necessary details of relationships between an employer and an employee.

The fuss started when Mikhail Prokhorov, one of Russia’s richest men and a member of the Industrialists and Entrepreneurs’ Union, proposed a package of measures that, in his opinion, will raise labor productivity in the country.

Prokhorov said that current labor legislation hampers innovation. According to the tycoon, Russia’s productivity levels are 3 to 4 times less than in other developed countries.

Prokhorov believes that the labor legislation should be more flexible in terms of firing employees, arguing that the current laws are ineffective and non-competitive. Depending on the region, it takes up to 8 months to fire an employee. Moreover, the procedure is rather expensive.

The Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, dubbed by some as the “Trade Union of Oligarchs,” is also calling for the wider introduction of fixed-term contracts, instead of open-ended ones which are much more common in Russia. They say fixed-term contracts are more effective.

“Following the Labor Code, we have too many employees, which leads to lower salaries,” Prokhorov is quoted as saying by the union’s official website. “As a result, the most motivated and efficient workers quit when they are offered better conditions. Therefore, companies that obey the law lose to those who prefer to ignore it.”

According to the Federation of Independent Trade Unions, more than 2 million Russians have been fired since the financial crisis began in 2008.

“This is an attempt to bring the country back to the chaos and mayhem when no one had to care about employees,” according to the president of the Labor and Social Policy Committee, Andrey Isaev. “The aim of the economy is to satisfy people’s need, to make their lives better. And the aim of the economy’s modernization is to improve the situation, not throw 7 of 10 employees away without any complex procedures and termination benefits.”

Outraged by Mikhail Prokhorov’s speech, the United Russia party has accused the tycoon of going against modernization.