The Constitutional Court stopped the practice of concluding fixed-term contracts with executives

The Constitutional Court (CC) recognized the provision of the Labor Code as contrary to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, according to which a fixed-term employment contract can be concluded by agreement of the parties with the heads of organizations (paragraph 8, part 2, article 59 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). The judges considered the content of this norm to be unclear, the message on the KS website.

The decision of the Constitutional Court was made on the basis of an appeal from Muscovite Elena Selkova, who in June 2021 got a job as the head of the development service at the Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia. A fixed-term employment contract was concluded with her for three months, after which Ms. Salkova was fired.

Elena Salkova tried to challenge her dismissal, but the woman was rejected in the court of first instance, citing the nature of her position. This decision was overturned on appeal – classifying a position as a managerial category does not make an employee a “head of the organization,” the judges considered. The cassation court found the conclusion of the trial court to be correct.

The Constitutional Court considered that the Labor Code does not equate the concepts of “managers” and “head” of an organization, as well as “head of an organization” and “head of a structural unit of an organization.” The court placed the responsibility on the legislator to eliminate this vagueness of language. Until the necessary changes are made, new similar agreements cannot be concluded.

Petr Buzlaev