The lawyer questioned the legality of the initiative to dismiss once a year

Limiting the possibility of dismissal of employees in Russia to one day a year — the so—called St. George's Day - is contrary to the Constitution and current labor legislation. Sofya Lukinova, head of the Legal department of VMT Consult, told Izvestia about this on March 2.

According to her, the Labor Code explicitly establishes the employee's right to terminate an employment contract at any time. In accordance with Article 80 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, an employee has the right to resign at his own request, notifying the employer two weeks in advance, and in some cases without mandatory work. In addition, Article 9 of the Labor Code prohibits the inclusion in employment contracts of conditions that worsen the position of the employee in comparison with the law. Thus, even at the level of an individual company, such restrictions would be illegal.

"The right to work and the prohibition of forced labor are enshrined in Article 37 of the Constitution. The introduction of restrictions on dismissal would actually mean forcing a person to continue working against his will," Lukinova stressed.

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The lawyer noted that such a measure would have negative consequences for both employees and employers. Companies would lose the opportunity to quickly part with ineffective employees, and the employees themselves would find themselves in a situation of forced continuation of employment relations. According to her, this would inevitably lead to a decrease in motivation and a deterioration of the business atmosphere in the teams.

In addition, the implementation of such an initiative would require significant administrative resources for monitoring and would be accompanied by an increase in the number of complaints to the labor inspectorate and labor disputes.

Lukinova also pointed out that the reduction in labor mobility contradicts the principles of a market economy. Limiting the freedom of dismissal would negatively affect the flexibility and adaptability of the economy as a whole, especially in a changing labor market.

On February 3, Evgeny Masharov, a member of the commission of the Russian Public Chamber for the public examination of draft laws and other regulations, said that an employer could fire an employee for being more than four hours late for work. At the same time, the employer cannot issue a fine according to the country's labor legislation. Only remarks, reprimands, and dismissals are allowed.

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