Anastasia Manuilova about the nuances of protecting labor rights in Russia

Last week, the government submitted two bills to the State Duma for consideration, illustrating an interesting trend that is increasingly determining the relationship between the state and society. It could be characterized as the nationalization of an increasing number of functions to protect the rights of workers, gradually leading to the displacement of trade unions from this area. The situation of the latter, historically considered one of the most effective institutions for protecting workers’ rights, is now, after February 24, 2022, difficult. Since trade union activities are close to political, it can be assumed that they have fewer opportunities to protect workers, and the situation that has developed in the Russian labor market, usually called the “personnel shortage,” on the contrary, creates opportunities for further increasing influence and even pressure on employers .

The state apparently plans to deal with the latter on its own, creating comfortable regulation for individual, rather than group, protection of workers’ rights. Thus, amendments to the Labor Code (LC) oblige employers to regulate how an outstanding disciplinary sanction affects the payment of bonuses to employees. Earlier, Elena Tsaregorodskaya, an employee of the state medical organization, filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court (CC) about their non-payment for this reason, and the CC, citing the fact that the procedure for depriving bonuses on such a basis is not regulated in the Labor Code, recognized Part 2 of Art. 135 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation is unconstitutional. Another amendment to the Labor Code involves essentially similar changes to Art. 152, which determines the procedure for paying overtime – a new mechanism for calculating it, more favorable for workers, involves the inclusion of payments in overtime pay, rather than “bare salary” with a coefficient of at least two. The norm was also caused by the decision of the Constitutional Court, which examined the case of the guard of the Anzhero-Sudzhensky center for accounting and economic services of cultural institutions in the Kemerovo region, Sergei Ivanchenko.

If we remember that in the last two years, corporate lawyers have recorded an increase in the number of disputes that employees win, challenging even dismissals of their own free will or by agreement of the parties, it seems that the state has set itself the task of giving employees more and more opportunities to independently protect their interests and often does it quite effectively (see “Kommersant” dated November 7). This generally corresponds to the trend towards nationalization of the economy and, more importantly, the trend towards the creation of a “service” state, promised by the current Prime Minister at the beginning of his term. It is being created, and the place of the trade union movement in it is not at all obvious.

Anastasia Manuilova