wage guarantees under the Labor Code do not apply to members of election commissions

The relationship between the precinct election commission and its voting members is not labor in nature, and therefore the wage guarantees established by the Labor Code do not apply to them. This is stated in the decision of the Supreme Court (SC) of the Russian Federation on the claim of a member of the precinct election commission from the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Sergei Voronov, who demanded an increase in payments for participation in the InformUIK project. But the Supreme Court came to the conclusion that work in the election commission (including door-to-door canvassing of voters, which started last weekend) is one of the forms of participation in the management of state affairs, which means that the payment for such work may be even lower than the minimum wage.

Member of the precinct election commission (PEC) No. 106 of the city of Gubkinsky in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug) Sergei Voronov, delegated to the PEC from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, challenged in the Supreme Court the decisions of the Central Election Commission (CEC) establishing the procedure for payments in presidential elections, including distribution between regional election commissions almost 7.7 billion rubles, allocated additionally for the implementation of the InformUIK project.

This project involves targeted notification of voters about the dates, time, place and forms of voting. The door-to-door and door-to-door canvassing of Russians by PEC members started on February 17 and will continue until March 7; It is expected that more than 320 thousand people will take part in it. According to the decision of the Central Election Commission, bypass participants will receive a fixed payment in the amount of 9 thousand to 10.4 thousand rubles, and the remuneration of PEC members for work in elections is 42 rubles. at one o’clock. But, according to the applicant, this does not correspond to the volume and conditions of work and violates his constitutional right to decent remuneration for work. After all, 9 thousand rubles. for 20 days of door-to-door visits – this is almost half the minimum wage (in 2024 it is set at 19,242 rubles per month).

However, the court found the administrative plaintiff’s arguments about the contradiction of the contested decisions with the provisions of the Labor Code “unfounded.” These arguments are based on an incorrect interpretation of the law, the Supreme Court points out. A member of the PEC is not just a hired employee, he represents a body endowed with public authority functions. Participation in the work of election commissions is one of the forms of citizens exercising their right to participate in the management of state affairs, the court decision emphasizes. Indeed, when exercising their powers, such as monitoring the organization of voting, counting votes, and determining election results, election commissions act primarily in the interests of citizens as bearers of voting rights. “Consequently, the relationship between the precinct election commission and its voting members… is not labor in nature, and therefore the guarantees of the amount and timing of payment of wages established in paragraph seven of Article 2 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and part 2 of Article 37 of the Constitution RF, do not apply to disputed legal relations,” the Supreme Court concludes. In this case, we are talking about the implementation of the requirements of the electoral legislation, and, therefore, the Central Election Commission was authorized to make a decision on the distribution of funds allocated for the preparation and conduct of elections, including for additional wages, the court concluded.

The press service of the Electoral Commission of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug explained the demarche of a member of one of the PECs by his personal dissatisfaction with working conditions. He filed a similar complaint with the election commission, which was also rejected – and it’s very good that the Supreme Court put an end to this dispute, the regional commission is happy. According to Kommersant’s interlocutor, in fact, the reward for door-to-door visits may be even higher than the amount referred to by Sergei Voronov, due to additional funds allocated from the regional budget.

The party that delegated him to the election commission does not support Mr. Voronov’s demand. “We send our representatives to the territorial and precinct election commissions so that they have the opportunity to see how the election process is going and, if there are any violations of the rights of citizens, to correct somewhere and represent the interests of the Communist Party, because we are interested in fairness and transparency of elections. But in no case for making money,” Elena Kukushkina, first secretary of the Yamalo-Nenets regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, told Kommersant. She notes that the applicant is not a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, but is only a member of the election commission. “Moreover, when he gave his consent, he knew all the conditions. That there is no labor legislation here, that no one provides them with work, that they go there for a specific purpose. What he is doing now is absolutely not consistent with how the Communist Party of the Russian Federation represents the work of members of the election commission, they have completely different goals,” Ms. Kukushkina emphasized. According to her, the Communist Party will draw appropriate conclusions after the end of the election campaign.

Anastasia Kornya; Vasily Alekseev, Ekaterinburg