On the issue of changes in labor legislation on remote (remote) work (experience of the COVID-19 pandemic)

Abstract

The sphere of social and labor rights has undergone a large-scale transformation due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictive measures. Almost all enterprises and organizations during the period of restrictive measures were forced to switch to a remote (remote) mode of operation. Some, and sometimes all, employees of organizations were forced to perform their labor function, stipulated by an employment contract, at home.
At the same time, before the introduction of the above-mentioned forced measures and subsequent amendments to the labor legislation regarding the regulation of the work of “homeworkers”, there were no provisions in the domestic labor legislation that would allow establishing legal regulation of the emergence of this kind of relationship between an employee and an employer.
In December 2020, the Federal Law “On Amendments to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation regarding the regulation of remote (remote) work and temporary transfer of an employee to remote (remote) work on the initiative of the employer in exceptional cases” was adopted.
This article is devoted to a conceptual review of the amendments to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation adopted in 2020, aimed at establishing the regulation of remote (remote) work, as well as the procedure for temporary transfer of an employee to remote (remote) work on the initiative of the employer in strictly exceptional cases.