The Ministry of Labor proposes to clarify the signs of labor relations
The Ministry of Labor proposes to supplement the Labor Code with a description of the signs of labor relations in order to achieve a uniform practice of recognizing them as such in courts on complaints of employees. Now, according to the ministry, the shadow labor market in the Russian Federation provides employment of 9.6 million people. However, lawyers indicate that the same criteria were already formulated in the recommendations of the International Labor Organization (ILO) back in 2006.
The Ministry of Labor has developed amendments to the Labor Code (TC), they fix in it new signs of labor relations, the project is published on the regulatiton.gov.ru portal.
As the authors of the bill in the explanatory note explain, so far some of the Russian employers are evading the legal execution of labor relations.
Recall, as Kommersant wrote earlier, according to the Ministry of Labor, which the department gave in its final report on the results of departmental work in 2023, 9.6 million people work illegally in the Russian Federation. This is less than 15% of all employed (over 75 million people). The planned landmarks for reducing shadow employment for 2024–2026 for the ministry was installed at the level of 2.9 million people, in 2023 the authorities managed to identify 795 thousand informally employed (more details See “Kommersant” from April 28).
When employees who previously worked under the GPC agreement apply to the court, judges, as a rule, are guided by the signs of labor relations specified in Article 15 of the Labor Code, as well as the decision of the Plenum of the Supreme Court (Supreme Court) of the Russian Federation of May 29, 2018 No. 15. However, the authors of the project indicate, if you add characteristics from the resolution directly to the Labor Code, this will reduce the number of disputed situations in the courts.
Recall that the Plenum of the Armed Forces recorded 11 features from labor relations, including their stable nature, the employee has additional guarantees, the performance of work on the instructions of the employer, the integration of the employee into the organizational structure of the employer, etc. As the deputy minister of labor Dmitry Platigin reported, these criteria were formed on the basis of the current norms of the labor code, judicial practice, judicial practice. law enforcement practice, therefore, clarifying the list “will help employees and employers independently correctly classify relations when concluding a contract, and will also accelerate judicial paperwork to restore the rights of the employee, since the court will be able to rely on specific signs of labor relations.”
However, as the head of the labor law of BGP Litigation Anna Ivanova notes, the criteria of labor relations described in the Supreme Economic Council in 2018 were formulated in 2006, published in the recommendation of MOT No. 198 and Russian courts already referred to this document. It is difficult to say how much their consolidation of them will have an impact on judicial practice, Anna Ivanova emphasizes.
In addition to the criteria of labor relations, the Ministry of Labor proposes to give labor inspections the right to file laws on labor relations with the same draft law.
However, as Kommersant previously wrote, there will be no one to fulfill new powers: in 2025, Rostrud can reduce the number of inspectors due to a decrease in financing their work (more details See “Kommersant” from March 24). “Now we are observing that inspectors do not even go to court when the court attracts them as a third party. Will they submit applications to the court when complaints of workers will massively collapse on them? Employees, in turn, will submit applications to the State Inspectorate for Labor and wait long, and then explain in court why they missed the limitation period, ”the expert notes.
