In accordance with an Executive Order of the Russian President, from 30 March to 3 April 2020 employees in Russia will have fully paid days off as part of measures to keep employees at home and prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The Executive Order does not apply to some organisations, including:
• “continuously operating” organisations;
• organisations in the medical and pharmaceutical sector;
• organisations that provide people with food and basic necessities;
• organisations that perform urgent work in emergency situations, which otherwise may endanger people’s lives or normal living conditions; and
• organisations that perform urgent repair and loading or unloading operations.
Thus, all the companies that do not fall under these exceptions have to release their employees from work in their workplaces during the above period, while continuing to pay them their salaries.
At the same time, we believe that employees working remotely (from home) can continue to work this way since remote work does not lead to additional social interactions. In our opinion, such work should be paid for in the usual amount. This position is indirectly confirmed by the Recommendations that the Ministry of Labour issued on 26 March 2020 and the latest comments of the Russian President’s Spokesperson. We hope that further official clarifications on these issues will appear soon.
By Valeriy Fedoreev, Christophe Huet, Partners, Ekaterina Elekchyan and Irina Skvortsova, Senior Associates, CMS Russia