Federal law No. 476-FZ of December 27, 2019, introduced several amendments to the Federal law “On electronic signature” (“Law”). Changes to the Law come into force gradually.

On May 5, 2020, a law comes into force that establishes the procedure for experimenting on the use of employment in electronic form without their duplicating on paper documents by certain employers and employees. More detailed rules for experimenting will be set out in the regulations on conducting the experiment, which must be approved by the Russian Ministry of Labor.

In its recent Ruling, the Russian Constitutional court clarified the provisions of the Labor Code regarding the conclusion of a fixed-term employment contract with persons who are employed to perform certain work when the date of completion of work cannot be determined by a specific date (paragraph 8, part 1 of article 59 of the Labor Code).

On April 18, 2020, the President of the Russian Federation signed a decree “On temporary measures to regulate the legal status of foreign citizens and stateless persons in the Russian Federation in connection with the threat of the further spread of a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19)” (“Decree”).

By the end of 2020, the Pension Fund must be notified of the employee’s employment and dismissal within one business day

On February 04, 2020, the Russian Constitutional Court recognized clause 2 of article 67 of the Russian Labour Code (employer’s obligation to issue an employment contract within 3 business days from the date of the employee’s actual work authorization or the date of the court’s recognition of civil relations as labor ones) and paragraph 1 of clause 8 of article 13 of the Federal law No. 115-FZ “On the legal status of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation” (obligation of an employer or customer to notify regarding the conclusion or termination (cancellation) of the labor or civil contract with a foreign citizen within 3 business days from the date of concluding or termination (cancellation) of the relevant contract) as constitutionally acceptable.

The recent Decree of the Russian President (“Decree”) establishes non-working days for the week from March 30 to April 3, 2020, to ensure the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population on the Russian territory, with the preservation of salaries for employees.

On June 3, 2019, the Judicial Chamber on civil cases of the Russian Supreme Court issued a ruling in a case between «Ormatek-Privolzhie» Limited liability company (“Company”) and Ramazanova I.N. in connection with the concluded refund agreement. This ruling reflects the Supreme Court’s opinion on the procedure for compensation of damage caused to employer by its former employee.

In December 2018, the Constitutional Court issued its decision, where part 1 of article 178 of the Labor code of the Russian Federation (“LC“) was recognized as inconsistent with the Constitution of the Russian Federation

On August 2, 2019 the Federal law (“Law”) amending the Federal law No. 115-FZ of July 25, 2002 “On legal status of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation” has been published on the official Internet portal of legal information http://www.pravo.gov.ru.