Labor relations with a remote employee

Zulfiya Yupashevskaya, Head of HR Services, BDO Unicon Outsourcing, tells about the responsibilities of a company when hiring remote employees

Who a remote employee is

Home employees, freelancers and those moving from one potential client to another are often called remote employees. But under the Labour Code remote employees are deemed only those performing the tasks determined by the employment contract, using the Internet and other telecommunication networks and located outside the employer’s site or the workplace under the employer’s control.

So a remote employee is by no means, for example, a worker visiting customers to install equipment, or a designer performing one-off tasks for a company under a civil law contract. Those let by their employer to work from home a few days a week will also not be deemed remote employees. Now the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection is only considering a proposal for legislative amendments that will officially permit regular employees to work remotely sometimes.

Risks of partial remote work

There is no yet a notion of partial remote work in Russia, so both employees and employers are at risk. For example, if an accident involving injuries to the employee working from home on Fridays occurs on that day, the employer will have to explain to the health and safety inspector why the employee was not in the office but at the far end of the city.

There have also been occasions where dishonest managers verbally allowed a professional to work from home for a few days, but then interpreted those cases as truancy and forced the person to resign “voluntarily”.

Legalization of employees

There must be an employment contract entered into with a remote employee. It may be done electronically, using a digital signature. The Labour Code provides an opportunity not to execute an employment record book for a remote employee if the parties have agreed upon it and stated a relevant aspect in the employment contract.

The contract with a remote employee does not contain a clause according to which the employer is obliged to provide a remote employee with a workplace, however a company is obliged to provide a remote employee with all the facilities required for work (computer, software, cellular communications). If employees use their own technical facilities, the employer must compensate them for their expenses. Business travel expenses are also covered, including travel of employees to the company office.

The employer is obliged to train employees and to pay taxes and insurance contributions for them. A probation period may be set for a new remote employee. If regular company employees become the remote ones, it will be possible to establish the probation period for them only having dismissed and hired them again.

Remote employees are entitled to the same benefits as the regular ones. For example, if they work in the region with unfavourable climatic conditions (and that region is specified in the employment contract as the place of work), their income will be indexed at the regional premium rate. Such employees are also entitled to “Northern allowances” to salaries.

If an employee is not a tax resident of the Russian Federation (that is, spends more than 183 days a year abroad), the income tax rate for such employee will be 30% rather than 13%. In that case, the employee is fully responsible for non-payment of the tax.

Working process and dismissal

A remote professional can have control over the work and rest regime, but the employment contract should specify the working hours when the person is obliged to stay in touch. It is better if those hours coincide with the schedule of other company employees.

To track the efficiency of employee performance, programs allowing for monitoring their computer screens can be used. It will be necessary to warn employees that you are going to use such programs: otherwise you will violate their privacy.

It would be wisest to set a plan for an employee and to specify the quantitative indicators to be reached by them. It will facilitate mutual understanding and help officially substantiate the cause of dismissal, in case you are not satisfied with their work.

It is as hard to dismiss remote employees as the regular ones. So the employment contract should stipulate the possibility of dismissal at the initiative of the company.