The State Duma adopted a law on remote work

The adopted version of the document clearly defines the remote mode of work.

The law establishes three types of remote work in the Labour Code:

• The first type is the permanent remote work. It is when the employee initially entered into the employment contract with the conditions of remote work.
• The second type is the temporary remote work. It is when people are transferred to remote work for a while, due to some circumstances.
• The third type is a mixed one — when a person works part of the time from the office, and part of the time from home.

The transfer of an employee to remote work is carried out in accordance with the procedure provided in the employment contract or additional agreement. Both the employment contract and the agreement are signed by two parties — the employee and the employer. Thus, the transfer to remote work is possible only with the consent of the employee.

Working hours for remote work are prescribed either in the collective agreement, a local regulatory act, in the employment contract or in an additional agreement to it.

An exception when an employer can proactively transfer an employee to remote work is natural or human-made disasters, industrial accidents, fires, floods, and other exceptional cases that endanger life or normal living conditions. In such cases, the transfer to remote work is allowed without entering into an additional agreement with the employee. At the same time, the employer must provide the employee with the necessary equipment and software, or pay for the rental of such equipment.

In such extraordinary circumstances, it is sufficient for the employer to adopt a local regulatory act that determines the list of employees temporarily transferred to remote work, the period they are transferred for, and this period cannot exceed the duration of the existence of emergency circumstances.

The bill specifies that the period of temporary remote work should not exceed six months.

Issues related to the working hours of remote employees are regulated separately. People will have the right to be offline, and working hours will be calculated in the same way as for office employees.

According to the Labour Code, the working week lasts no more than 40 hours. In case the employee has to work more, the employer must pay for this extra overtime.