REMOTE WORK: THE EXPERIENCE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE PROBLEMATIC ASPECTS OF ITS LEGAL STATUS IN RUSSIA

Abstract

The article examines the issues of legal regulation of the remote work in the context of the transformation of employment relations' nature in the modern world, and the phenomena of the atypical work arrangements. The article deals with the European Union legal framework concerning the remote work. In particular, the 2002 European Framework Agreement on Telework is discussed from point of view of possible borrowing of legal norms into the Russian law. The more recent European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) study on the new forms of work dealing with the so-called ICT-based mobile work is also discussed. Further, the author makes a critical evaluation of current Russian legal norms covering the remote work. The defects of Chapter 49.1 of the Labour Code of the Russian Federation are discussed from point of view of improvement of the Russian law on the matter. In particular, the author proposes to deal with the following problematic issues of remote work regulation in Russia: the impossibility to conclude the employment contract for partially remote work; the necessity to protect the remote employees' private life outside of their working time by establishing the right to be offline and unavailable to employer's calls; unreasonably hard requirement concerning the 'enhanced qualified electronic signature' which is due in the process of conclusion of employment contract and mutual notifications by its parties; lack of norms providing for the collective labour rights of the remote workers; the possibility to dismiss remote worker on the grounds established in the employment contract, which seriously deteriorates the position of such workers compared to other employees without any objective reason; lack of legal regulation of the transnational remote employment, etc.