The United Russia party on Tuesday, June 16, introduced to the State Duma a draft law “On Amending the Labor Code of the Russian Federation in Regulating Regulation of Remote and Remote Work”. This is stated in the article on the party’s official website.
According to party secretary Andrei Turchak, United Russia has been working on amendments to the Labor Code for more than a year.
“This is especially true now, when due to the coronavirus, remote employment has become an integral part of our lives. And many companies, having tested it during the period of restrictive measures, intend to apply this format in the future, ”Turchak explained.
The Secretary of the General Council of the party also emphasized the importance of the role of information technology, which, according to him, has largely changed the labor market and created new forms of employment.
At the same time, Turchak noted that the legislation does not have time to change as quickly, and as a result, legal gaps appear that may threaten the interests and rights of workers.
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The fact that the coronavirus pandemic led to a large-scale transfer of people to remote work was also told by the first deputy head of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, Andrei Isaev.
In his commentary on RT, he noted that most of the people, after removing the restrictions, introduced due to the situation with the coronavirus, remain at remote work.
“All this needs serious regulation, primarily in order to protect the rights of workers who work remotely. Therefore, we have prepared significant changes to chapter 49.1, which talks about telecommuting. We proposed to distinguish three types of such work: this is permanent remote (remote) work, this is a temporary transfer to remote work, and this is combined work, when an employee can partially work in an office, in a stationary workplace, and partially be in remote work, ”- Isaev explained.
Deputies accelerated work on the bill "On Amendments to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation" on behalf of party chairman Dmitry Medvedev. It is noted that the document provides for the systematic processing of remote work standards, the availability of their application, as well as the possibility of combining office and remote work.
In particular, the explanatory note to the bill says that in the current version of the Labor Code, in principle, there is no concept of “temporary distance work”. In addition, it is indicated that the current standards were not ready for the mass transfer of workers to a remote location. There were problems with notifying employees of the transfer to such a regime. In addition, due to the features of the TC, it was problematic to use electronic document management.
The authors of the current document note that the proposed changes will correct the situation. One of the tasks that this bill is intended to solve is called the maximum transition to electronic document management.
In addition, a number of outdated and irrelevant norms are excluded from the TC, including the requirement to indicate the workplace of a remote employee.
“The condition on the workplace has lost value due to the impossibility and
lack of need for the employer to control where territorial
work is carried out remotely. The workplace of a remote
employee can be located wherever it is possible to use the
Internet, ”the explanatory note says.
In addition, it is proposed to streamline the issues “related to the working time of remote workers, in particular, their right not to be in touch with the employer around the clock and not to answer letters and calls at certain time intervals”.
Georgy Ostapkovich, director of the Center for Market Studies at the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge, HSE, in his conversation with RT, called the bill “an absolutely reasonable maneuver.” According to the expert, formalization of the existing process is currently necessary, since so far the parameters of the remote work model are not fixed in the legislation quite clearly.
“That is, the employer, if he is in a bad relationship with the employee and brought him to the“ distance station ”, he can at any time make a claim to him that he skipped the work day, because there is no such regulation that you can do part of the work at home,” - explained George Ostapkovich.
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It is worth noting that, according to a study by the Bitrix24 analytical center, most Russian companies (74%) plan to continue using the remote work format.
The study, which was reviewed by RT, showed that 59% of employers plan to transfer part of their employees to remote work, and 15% are going to transfer the entire staff to a remote model. The survey was conducted from June 8 to 11 at 625 Russian companies.
Recall that due to the pandemic of coronavirus infection, many companies in Russia switched to remote work. After the restrictions were lifted and the non-working day regime, which was in effect from March 30 to May 12, was canceled, some companies began to return employees to offices, while others prefer to leave the remote work format.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, in turn, called on employers from the capital after removing the restrictions on the possibility of not returning their employees to offices, while retaining the ability to work remotely.
“I want to draw the attention of employers and business leaders, we recommend working as remotely as possible,” Sobyanin said.