During the suspension of the company’s activities due to quarantine restrictions, workers will not be allowed to be dismissed or dismissed at the employer’s initiative. Such is the essence of the “anti-crisis” resolution prepared by the Ministry of Labor.
According to the experts we interviewed, the document is extremely slurred. It contains considerable risks for both business and employees, contradicts the provisions of the Labor Code and, if implemented, can lead to the expansion of the shadow sphere of employment.
A project entitled “On the Peculiarities of Legal Regulation of Labor Relations in 2020” was submitted to the tripartite commission with the participation of representatives of the government, employers and trade unions. It is proposed to extend regulation departing from the TC only for the current year. The main point: labor relations with an employee who is “under distribution” in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic should be terminated at the initiative of the employee or by agreement of the parties. But in life everything will be different, analysts are sure.
Pavel Kudyukin, ex-deputy minister of labor, member of the Council of the Confederation of Labor of Russia: “From a legal point of view, this is a rather slurred, muddy resolution. It seems to be designed to protect the interests of the employee, but can be used against him.
When an employee is sent idle for objective reasons, and not at the initiative of the employer, he receives two thirds of the tariff rate in accordance with the Labor Code. This, I recall, is the official salary in the composition of the salary that is paid for fulfilling the labor standard. And since our tariff rates do not exceed one third of the total salary, a person will be on a starvation diet.
In many cases, the employer may also be unhappy. What should I do if he has nothing to pay off with the employee (the company got up, his income has dried up), and he does not want to consider what happened as a downtime?
However, he may well put pressure on the employee and force him to submit an application “of his own free will”, which happens all the time. The problem is also that in Russia in recent years the qualifications of civil servants have fallen dramatically. Yes, there are many complaints against the current labor legislation, but work on the Labor Code has been going on for decades. It is impossible to hastily take measures similar to that proposed by the Ministry of Labor. ”
Alexander Safonov, professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation: “The proposed dismissal procedure to some extent toughens the responsibility of employers, respectively, workers will be squeezed out of the enterprises of their own free will.
Now the bulk of the layoffs is by agreement of the parties. When a person leaves of his own free will, he is deprived of the opportunity to receive severance pay due to the reduction of staff. Losing an employee in money, and a considerable one, is the main risk that I see.
Plus, this situation will encourage business not to formalize labor relations with employees, which means that expansion of shadow employment awaits us. If the state does not create conditions that meet the requirements of companies in terms of labor legislation, they, in turn, begin to build new forms of relations with staff. ”
Sergey Smirnov, Doctor of Economics (HSE): “Our labor relations are regulated by the Labor Code, which sets out all the reasons for dismissal. How competent the Ministry of Labor is in this regard is a big question.
The employer has the right to dismiss the employee for an offense in the workplace: he came drunk, broke the machine, crashed the computer. Probably, the department is driven by good intentions, but I’m not sure that we are implementing its project. The Ministry of Labor doesn’t have to “threaten Shakespeare”, it can solve issues that lie outside the boundaries of the Labor Code: material support, the duration of paid leave, the amount of unemployment benefits. And by the way, I only want the employee to have as many benefits as possible, but the state must support the employer as well. It’s not easy for him now either. ”
Dmitry Potapenko, managing partner of Management Development Group Inc: “The authors of the project absolutely do not understand how the labor market functions, how labor relations are built. Its implementation will spur shadow employment.
It all depends on what kind of problem we are ultimately trying to solve. If the state wants people, without working and not getting a salary, while officially appearing somewhere, then it will not be possible to shift the solution of such an issue to commercial structures. It is simply technologically impossible: companies must have money, but now they are not and in the foreseeable future will not be.
However, in Russia, decision-makers were rarely highly qualified. They still think that rolls grow on trees. ”
