On May 5, 2020, a law1 comes into force that establishes the procedure for experimenting on the use of employment in electronic form without their duplicating on paper documents by certain employers and employees. More detailed rules for experimenting will be set out in the regulations on conducting the experiment, which must be approved by the Russian Ministry of Labor.
1. Participants of the experiment
Participation in the experiment is voluntary for both employers and employees:
- The list of employers participating in the experiment will be approved by the Russian Ministry of Labor.
- The list of employees is approved by each employer independently. The list includes employees and persons entering employment who have expressed their voluntary consent to participate in the experiment. However, the experiment is not applied to remote employees and employees who are temporarily assigned by employers to other individuals or legal entities under a contract for the provision of labor (personnel).
At any time before or after the start of the experiment, the employee has the right to refuse to participate, notifying the employer no later than 2 weeks in advance.
2. Timing of the experiment
Each employer determines the start date of the experiment independently. The experiment runs until March 31, 2021, inclusive.
3. Preparatory actions
Each employer participating in the experiment takes the following actions before the experiment begins:
- Notifying the employees
No later than one month before the start of the experiment the employer notifies each employee of the experiment, as well as of his/her right to refuse to participate in the experiment or express his/her voluntary consent to participate in the experiment.
- Determining the list of employees involved in the experiment
Either all employees of the organization or employees of its separate business units can participate in the experiment (subject to restrictions on certain categories of employees — see paragraph 1 above). Inclusion in the list of participants is possible only for employees who have expressed their consent to participate.
It is also possible to include new employees on the list. When entering into an employment contract with a new employee during the experiment the employer:
- Notifies him/her of the experiment and introduces them to the local regulations related to the experiment;
- Notifies him/her of the right to refuse to participate in the experiment or to express a voluntary consent to participate in the experiment
- Determining the list of documents involved in the experiment
The employer independently approves the list of employment documents that are to be involved in the experiment. The list can include those documents that now employees are required to familiarize themselves with under the signature and which are issued in paper form. For instance, the list can include employment contracts, financial liability agreements, student agreements and amendments (additional agreements) to them.
- Developing of new local regulations or amending the existing ones in connection with the experiment and familiarizing the employees under the signature
Due to the experiment the employer adopts or makes changes (if necessary) to its local regulations considering the opinion of the elected body of primary trade union organization (if any). The list of such regulations includes, inter alia, the local regulation on the use of electronic signatures by employer and employees, and local regulation on the procedure for the processing by the employer of electronic employment documents that contain employees’ personal data.
- Defining an electronic document flow system for conducting an experiment
In order to create, use, and storage electronic employment documents, the employer creates an information system or (if necessary) ensures the possibility to use the existing information system, and (if necessary) ensures the interoperability of the employer’s information system with “Work in Russia” system.
The experiment is carried out within the framework of the approved strategy2 for the development of the information society for 2017-2030. The results of this experiment will help to identify existing shortcomings in the electronic document flow system and help to eliminate them before directly switching to electronic employment document flow on a permanent basis.
UPDATE: Starting from June 28, 2020, the Regulations on the procedure for conducting an experiment on the use of electronic documents related to work (the “Regulations”) approved by the Russian Ministry of Labor will come into force.
The Regulations specifies, inter alia, the following issues regarding the conduct of the experiment:
- The recommended employer application form for inclusion in the list of employers participating in the experiment, as well as the employer application form for refusal to participate in the experiment are approved;
- The procedure for sending an employer application to participate in the experiment and the term for its consideration by the Russian Ministry of Labor are defined;
- The recommended list of documents that can participate in the experiment is established;
- The procedure for interaction with the “Work in Russia” information system for the purposes of the experiment is defined;
- The recommended list of provisions that are to be included in the local regulations of the employer in connection with the experiment is approved.
1Federal law No. 122-FZ of 24.04.2020 “On conducting an experiment on the use of electronic employment documents”
2Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 203 of 09.05.2017 “On the strategy for the development of the information society in the Russian Federation for 2017-2030”
3Order of the Russian Ministry of Labor No. 240n of 14.05.2020