The bill protects the employee from an arbitrary reduction of the payments he has received, according to the explanatory note of the document. The document modifies article 135 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. According to them, if an employee has an outstanding disciplinary sanction, the amount of the bonus can be reduced only once during the period in which the disciplinary sanction was applied to the employee and by no more than 20 percent. However, reduction of other payments is not allowed in the presence of a disciplinary sanction.
“The Ministry of Labor of Russia, in consultation with trade union and employer associations, has prepared a draft law, the content of which can be reduced to three simple theses: the remuneration system used by a particular employer and the conditions for the assignment of all payments, transparent and understandable, must be established by collective agreement, agreement, local law; The deduction can only be made once during the duration of the disciplinary sanction and only during the bonus; the amount of the deduction cannot be more than 20 percent,” explains FNPR vice president Nina Kuzmina.
The document generally limits salary reductions to more than 20% when a disciplinary sanction is imposed. This clarification was made for the purpose of “certainty in the application of the proposed rule” and “in relation to the wide variety of compensation systems used by employers and differences in salary structure.” However, the bill does not affect the calculation of incentive payments, which depend on employees’ performance and performance.
In the absence of clear and defined legal regulation, bonuses were not awarded to an employee who had a disciplinary sanction, says Nina Kuzmina. Since a bonus is one of the forms of material incentives. And many employers believed that an employee should not be punished and rewarded at the same time.
“The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, by a decision of June 15, 2023, considered it illegal to deprive an employee of bonuses and other incentive payments for the entire period of disciplinary sanction and decided to amend the legislation to establish a list specific payments from which deductions can be made and the maximum amount of the deduction,” explains Nina Kuzmina.
The absence of restrictions on the amount of reduction in payments during disciplinary measures led employers to completely cancel bonuses to employees, notes Alexander Safonov, professor at the Financial University of the Government of the Russian Federation. Furthermore, in his opinion, the possibility of canceling a bonus in case of disciplinary sanction could be used to reduce salaries below the minimum wage. Therefore, the changes protect the interests of even the lowest-paid employees.
The draft law was prepared in accordance with the resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of June 15, 2023 No. 32-P, according to which the second part of article 135 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation was recognized as incompatible with the Constitution of the Russian Federation, since it gives rise to the possibility of arbitrarily establishing rules for calculating individual payments included in salaries.
Currently, the legislation does not specify the procedure for reducing payments to an employee in the presence of a disciplinary sanction, the Ministry of Labor reported when presenting the document for public discussion.
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