Press Center: Legal updates

The Judicial Chamber on Civil Cases in its recent Ruling1 once again consolidated guarantees to employees and placed their rights and position above the interests of the employer.

New amendments are introduced to the Order of the Russian Government dated 16.03.2020 No. 635-r “On temporary restriction of entry into the Russian Federation of foreign citizens and stateless persons and temporary suspension of registration and issuance of visas and invitations” (the “Order”).

Federal Law No. 407-FZ dated December 8, 2020 made material amendments to the section of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation which regulates distance work. The necessity for such amendments became evident as soon as employers started to switch their staff to work from home in large numbers at the beginning of 2020.

Starting from 2021, the amendments to the Labor Code regarding the regulation of labor in non-commercial (non-profit) organizations have come into force.

In its recent review of judicial practice on employment cases by Russian courts², the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (the Supreme Court) defined legal strategies that should be guided when considering disputes related to the termination of an employment contract at the employer’s initiative. Below we consider the main conclusions of the Supreme Court.

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.

The coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) served as a trigger for a targeted effort to assess and manage the possible effects of it. The Russian Government continues to update the measures taken or introduce new ones, trying to act ahead of the possible adverse consequences. Our lawyers are closely monitoring the situation, watching out for the new measures introduced in relation to the coronavirus.
We offer overview of key legislative changes and recommendations for business in the current pandemic.

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.

Deputies of the Moscow city Duma introduced a bill suggesting adding provisions for remote work to the Labour Code. The ground for making such amendments are the difficulties in formalising transfer of employees to remote work which the employers faced during the pandemic.

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).