On July 21, State Duma accepted the remote work bill after the first reading. This decision was proposed by State Duma chairman Vyacheslav Volodin, Federation Council chairman Valentina Matvienko, State Duma members Andrei Isaev, Mikhail Tarasenko, Sergei Neverov and Federation Council members Andrei Turchak, Andrei Klishas and Inna Svyatenko. The law bill is aimed at regulating the temporarily remote work process.

During the pandemic, employees and employers alike have experienced issues switching to remote work, given that labor law does not account for temporary remote work, but rather allows for a traditional labor agreement, which refers to working at a workplace provided by the employer, or a remote work contract that does not provide an office workplace at all.

The new Federal law will provide an opportunity to combine several ways of organizing the work process – working both in the office and remotely.

The law bill also seeks to regulate the compensation of employees' remote workplace arrangement and informational interaction arrangements expenses, as well as to consider the working hours and encourage working beyond them.

Implementing new, flexible forms of employment will allow for a highly efficient and convenient work process, which is an undeniable upside both for the employee and the employer.

At the same time, expanding the ways of implementing the remote work employment practices will encourage the employers to switch to a digital human resources document flow.

On July 23, this legal bill will be reviewed during the Russian trilateral commission meeting. The trade union representatives have certain concerns regarding the proposed practices, specifically the employees' labor rights security promises.

“After long negotiations, we supported the legal bill in the form it is presented at the first reading – said the FNPR Chairman Mikhail Shmakov, who was invited to State Duma for negotiations on July 21 – We also approve of creating a dedicated team working towards properly structuring the bill for the second reading in order to list all the laborer warranties within the new working conditions”.