The president signed amendments to the Labor Code regulating distance employment in early April. From now on employers may hire personnel online. Director of the Russian Labor and Social Protection Ministry department for payroll, labor relations and social partnership Marina Maslova disclosed distance employment details in an interview with Rossiyskaya Business Gazeta.

Marina Sergeyevna, how can a distant employee be recruited?

Marina Maslova: There are two recruitment options. Firstly, recruitment may be traditional. If a job applicant lives nearby, it will be easier and more advantageous to make a personal call to the company office and have the paperwork done before starting to work at home, without visiting the office. This means amendments to the Labor Code do not compel the employer and the distant employee to complete recruitment formalities exclusively online. Secondly, such employees may be recruited from home. The worker will need to obtain the digital signature from a certification center, scan originals of his or her documents and send them to the employer. In this case the labor contract will be drafted online and certified with digital signatures of both sides. Besides, the contract original will be mailed to the employee within three days since its signing. The employee may agree with the employer on the provision of hardware, including the one required for exchange of electronic documents certified with the digital signature.

Are there any recruitment procedures that require personal presence of the employee?

Marina Maslova: The law does not set such requirements. Personal presence of the employee in the company office is not required either at the recruitment moment or in the course of work. Even such payments as sick leave or birthrate and maternity allowances can be arranged distantly.

How is the employment record book issued?

Marina Maslova: If a job application already has an employment record book, he or she sends it to the employer by registered mail. If this is the first job, the employer may issue the employment record book himself. The similar procedure is applied in the case of resignation; the employment record book is sent to the employee by registered mail with recorded delivery.

I have some doubts about the need to acquire the digital signature, which means extra expenditures of the employee

Marina Maslova: True, on one hand, these are expenditures, and, on the other hand, this is a way to save money. Expenditures on a visit to the employer may exceed the digital signature issue costs several times. If job applicants from remote regions are employed, acquisition of the digital signature can significantly reduce their employment costs. Besides, there are distance employees who work for more than one employer. Online registration spares them unnecessary travelling.

Which employers are the primary targets of the Labor Code amendments?

Marina Maslova: They are advantageous for companies ordering works that can be delivered online. In that case the whereabouts of employees become irrelevant. There is a demand for such distance employees as journalists, designers, programmers and photographers. There is a big interest in distance employment on both sides. Companies wish to save on office expenditures. There are an increasing number of job applicants wishing distance employment. These are persons with disabilities, young mothers and mothers of many children. But not just them. The number of people who find convenient this form of employment is growing amongst job applicants.

So, these amendments help recruit people who do not want or cannot work in office for some reason, don’t they?

Marina Maslova: The amendments will really involve more people in labor relations. Everyone interested to continue working distantly. A lot is being said about the need for employment of families with many children and pensioners, and the amendments to the Labor Code help attain this goal.

What provisions shall the labor contract with a distance employee have?

Marina Maslova: The labor contract – and that is envisaged by amendments to the Labor Code – shall indicate the period in which the employer and the employee shall confirm reception of each other’s electronic documents. Because there is a risk of losing e-mails in the online correspondence. Hence, both sides in the employment process shall control their timely delivery. Also the employer has a possibility to lay down labor discipline rules, for instance, hours in which the employee shall make a call or be accessible to clients via certain communication means. If there is no need for setting these criteria, the employee may organize the labor process independently. The labor contract may set the procedure and time for publishing the distance employee’s work reports, the procedure and period of payment of compensations for using equipment, software and hardware and other expenditures incurred in the course of the labor process.

Labor relations with the distance employee may be terminated on reasons indicated in the contract. The employer may lower one’s risks from the inequitable conduct of the employee with detailed descriptions of the grounds for possible termination of labor relations. For instance, cooperation may stop if an employee is inaccessible within a certain period of time. Labor contracts with office workers may be terminated only on grounds listed by the Labor Code. It is impossible to terminate a labor contract with a missing office worker without a court order. Companies cooperating with distance employees have this possibility but only if this criterion of termination of labor relations is mentioned in the contract.

Earlier the Labor Code contained the demand to supply a teleworker with hardware and materials. Do the amendments remove this duty of the employer?

Marina Maslova: Distance employment allows for including in the labor contact all issues related to the provision of the employee with hardware, equipment and materials or compensation for the expenditures he or she incurs from organizing one’s work place. If such conditions are not mentioned in the labor contract, then the employee thinks that his or her salary is sufficient for covering labor expenditures. In this case a job candidate should take care and evaluate one’s expenditures and incomes.

Is it possible to offer distance recruitment to an employee from another state?

Marina Maslova: Labor relations with foreign workers are regulated by the Federal Law No 115-FZ dated July 25, 2002, “On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation.” This document lays down an administrative and legal recruitment regime, which implies crossing of the border, issue of work permits and so on. So, a possibility of distance employment is not provided.

And what is a company finds a job applicant who lives abroad?

Marina Maslova: No restrictions are set for Russian citizens irrespective of their place of residence. It is possible to offer distance employment to a Russian residing abroad.

How will disputes between the employer and the distance employee be settled?

Marina Maslova: Labor Code amendments related to distance employment do not change the procedure of settling labor disputes. There is a complication though, as to where the dispute will be settled. The employee may appeal to a court in one’s home town, and then the employer will have to go there for settling the dispute. But the employer may also file a claim in his home town, and in that case the employee will have to attend the court sessions. Besides, the conflict between the employee and the employer may be settled at a labor dispute commission. In that case the employee may be absent from meetings by his request.

Источник: Rossiyskaya Business Gazeta