On 24 March 2025, the State Duma adopted, at the third reading, Draft Law No. 1097621-8 (the “Draft Law”), which prohibits employers from imposing a probationary period on women with children under the age of three.
The Draft Law introduces amendments to Part 4 of Article 70 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (the “Labor Code”) and increases the age of the child upon whose existence a woman may not be subjected to a probationary period upon hiring. At present, this protection applies to pregnant women and women with children under the age of one and a half years. By way of reminder, at present a probationary period may not be imposed on the following categories of persons:
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persons elected through a competitive selection process to fill the relevant position, where such process has been conducted in accordance with labor legislation and other regulatory legal acts containing labor law provisions;
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persons under the age of eighteen;
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persons who have obtained secondary vocational education or higher education under state-accredited educational programmes and who, within one year of obtaining the relevant level of professional education, enter employment for the first time in the specialty they have obtained;
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persons elected to an elected paid position;
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persons invited to work by way of transfer from another employer as agreed between the employers;
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persons entering into an employment agreement for a term of up to two months.
According to the explanatory note to the Draft Law, this measure is intended to eliminate excessive stress and additional psychological barriers created by a probationary period for women undergoing a period of extraordinary strain and heightened responsibility associated with raising a child. In the view of the authors of the Draft Law, the current legal regulation not only undermines the labor rights of women with young children, but may also give rise to latent forms of discrimination, where an employer, while formally complying with the procedure established by law, is able to refuse to hire a woman or dismiss her on the ground that she has failed to pass probation, without providing any substantial explanation for such dismissal.
In order to ensure proper compliance with labor law requirements, it would be advisable for employers, prior to the execution of an employment agreement with prospective female employees, to explain that, where they have children under the age of three, no probationary period may be imposed on them. We recommend putting in place an appropriate process for obtaining such “sensitive” information at the recruitment stage by inviting female candidates to disclose the existence of children solely for the purposes of ensuring that the statutory protections are afforded to them and that the terms of the employment agreement are properly documented. Such an approach will make it possible to exclude a probationary period clause in a timely manner where its inclusion is not permitted, thereby minimizing the risk of infringing employees’ labor rights and of subsequent disputes arising.
The new provisions will enter into force on 1 September 2026.