The Ministry of Labor did not support the initiative to transfer the working day in 2020 from December 31 to one of the previous weekend. This is stated in the response of the department to the request of the chairman of the State Duma committee on labor, social policy and affairs of veterans Yaroslav Nilov.

The ministry explained that, according to article 110 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the duration of weekly uninterrupted rest cannot be less than 42 hours, which are counted from the time of the end of work on the eve of the weekend until the start of work on the next working day after the weekend.

"The postponement of December 31 to the previous calendar day off will not comply with the law, as it will violate the requirements of Article 110 of the Code," the Ministry of Labor said in a response posted on the deputy's Telegram channel.

At the same time, the department noted that they plan to take this proposal into account when postponing the weekend in 2021.

Yaroslav Nilov, commenting on the response of the Ministry of Labor, said that “in 2020, citizens should not expect any centralized transfer of December 31 as a day off”.

“Again, only the political will of the heads of individual regions, ready to meet people halfway, and again the bewilderment of their neighbors, the subjects, who were left on New Year's Eve as a“ worker, ”he said.

Later, the deputy wrote that the bill obliging the Russian government to establish December 31 "a quiet day off for people" will be considered by the State Duma in the fall.

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Recall that in November 2019, a group of deputies from the Liberal Democratic Party submitted to the State Duma a bill proposing to make December 31 a day off. At the same time, it was proposed to leave the total number of non-working holidays indicated in the Labor Code unchanged.

The authors of the initiative noted that the transfer of one of the days off to December 31 "will allow workers and employers to more efficiently use weekends and non-working holidays, as well as to maintain a balance of interests between workers, employers and trade unions." The government did not support this bill. 

Rostrud then said that December 31 could become non-working for citizens if the employer provides them with an additional day of rest, but this will reduce the standard of working hours, which may lead to a decrease in wages. In addition, you can provide an employee with a day off on December 31 as a day of vacation or day off for previously worked overtime.

At the same time, before the New Year, the heads of a number of Russian regions announced the decision to make December 31 a day off. The relevant documents were signed, in particular, by the leaders of the Sverdlovsk, Volgograd, Magadan, Kaliningrad regions, Tatarstan and Yakutia.

In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin, answering questions during a large press conference, called the proposal to allow the Russians not to work on December 31 logical, but urged to calmly analyze everything so as not to cause damage.

“As for the weekend on 31st, in principle, in my opinion, this is logical, of course ... But how to do it, whether it is possible and necessary to do it right now, in a hurry, on the eve of the New Year, I don’t know”, - said the president.

It is worth noting that in July 2019, the Russian government approved a decree on the postponement of weekends in 2020, according to which January 4 and 5 (Saturday and Sunday), coinciding with non-working holidays, were postponed to May 4 and 5. This decision was made "for the purpose of rational use of weekends and non-working holidays by employees." Thus, the duration of the New Year holidays was eight days.

Proposal to reduce New Year's holidays

In June 2020, Andrey Kutepov, Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy, came up with an initiative to reduce the New Year holidays in 2021. In his opinion, such a step would make it possible to compensate for the economic losses of Russia from the introduction of a non-working day regime, which was necessary in order to slow the spread of coronavirus infection.

Kutepov sent a draft of the corresponding amendment to the Labor Code to the Ministry of Labor for a response.

"In order to compensate for the number of forced non-working days to support the economy of enterprises and organizations, the bill proposes to shorten the New Year holidays in 2021 and make the working week from January 4 to 8, with the exception of January 7," the document proposed by the senator said.

Kutepov said that taking into account the situation that has arisen due to COVID-19, as well as the days associated with the parade in honor of the 75th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War and voting on amendments to the Constitution, the number of non-working days in 2020 in Russia became more by 20%.

The Ministry of Labor replied to this that, according to the Labor Code, from January 1 to 8 in Russia there is a period of holidays, and any changes to the code should be discussed with employers and employees.