Remote work: is it possible to fire an employee for absenteeism, reduce staff and avoid punishment from inspectors?

What makes remote work different?

According to current legislation, an employee, in agreement with the employer, can work not in those places that are traditionally considered workers (that is, created and controlled by the employer), but at a distance from them. Remote work can be carried out:

• at home, and then the place of work will be the employee’s place of residence (Chapter 49 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation);
• without reference to a specific place of work, and then its nature will be determined by the word “remote” (Chapter 49.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

What both types of remote work have in common is that they:

• despite a number of features that distinguish them, they are subject to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and are documented in an employment agreement with the employee;
• allow the fact that the employee performing the work is absent from the place controlled by the employer, which excludes the usual procedure for maintaining a time sheet and deprives the employee of the opportunity to receive additional payments for overtime work;

Read about the specifics of preparing a time sheet for someone working from home in the article “Do I need to keep a time sheet for a home-based employee?”

• allow the employee to independently distribute time of work and rest, and the employer is forced, when issuing a work assignment, to focus on such a volume of work that will allow the employee to fully rest in the intervals between periods of work;
• can be performed by means of labor belonging to both the employee and the employer, and the employee has the right to claim compensation for the use of property belonging to him;
• allow the establishment of a special procedure for the procedure for transferring an assignment to an employee to perform work and receiving its results from him;
• limit the employer’s obligations in terms of ensuring the employee’s labor protection to those that are available to the employer due to the territorial remoteness of the employee or the inviolability of his home;
• allow the provisions of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation to be supplemented with special conditions included in the employment contract.

The difference between working from home and remote work is determined by:

• place of work - for a homeworker it exists and has a specific address, while remote work is not tied to any place;
• the ability to attract other people to work - a person working from home has this (he can entrust part of the work to his family members) and is absent from a remote worker;
• the nature of the results of labor - a home worker creates things that have a material expression, and a remote worker creates intellectual products;
• the presence of direct contact with the employer in the process of work - a homeworker needs such contact (he can receive source materials from the employer and must transfer the final product to him), and interaction with a remote worker occurs through electronic means of communication (with the possibility of issuing an enhanced qualified electronic signature for the employee) and regular mail.

Dismissal of a remote worker by agreement of the parties

Dismissal of a remote worker from work can be done by agreement of the parties. This method is resorted to when the employer and subordinate do not want to cooperate further.

For the correct implementation of the relevant procedure, an order is issued, and its certified copy is sent by mail or courier to the worker’s address. According to existing rules, an employee is required to report to work in person on the day of dismissal to receive a work book. This is difficult for remote workers to do. Therefore, the employer, after termination of the relationship, is obliged to send a written warning about receiving the work book in person. The former employee is given the right to draw up a written application for the possibility of sending the document by mail.

Interaction with the employer during remote work

The ability to enter into direct contact with the employer (or his representative) during the employment process and in further labor relationships for a person working at home also determines for him the way in which documents are exchanged between them. An employee can always submit the original of the required document and receive in return the required document in paper form.

The situation is more complicated for a remote worker. Geographically, he can be sufficiently distant from the employer so that direct contact between them is excluded. That is why one of the main features of such work, chap. 49.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation refers to the possibility of electronic interaction between the parties to an employment contract, allowing, among other things, the issuance of an enhanced qualified electronic signature for the employee, allowing him to create documents, the electronic form of which acquires legal force.

Electronic exchange is allowed through:

• simple electronic correspondence with subsequent sending of original documents that the parties need in paper form, by regular mail by registered mail;
• electronic documents with an enhanced qualified electronic signature of the sending party.

How to quit your job remotely

The disposition of Article 80 of the current Labor Code of the Russian Federation does not provide explanations on how to resign remotely. The employee does have such an opportunity, but only if the issue cannot be resolved personally. The legislation does not provide for any requirements prohibiting such a procedure, so an employee can point out precisely such circumstances to his employer. How exactly the preference is implemented in this situation, and what the employee and his still existing employer need to do, will be discussed further.

Preparation of personnel documents for remote work

The presence of a special remote procedure for interaction does not, however, relieve the employee and employer from the need to transfer to each other (in person or by registered mail) a number of documents in paper form. These include:

• An employment contract with all additional agreements to it, which both parties must have in the original. The presence of the original becomes especially important for the employee in a situation where there is an agreement not to make an entry about remote work in the work book.

About when and where you will need the original of such an agreement, read the material “Total length of service - what is included and how to calculate?”.

• A work book handed over to the employer in the absence of an agreement not to make an entry about the period of remote work.
• Notarized copies of documents required for presentation during employment (passport, work book, SNILS certificate, documents on military registration and education, various certificates), if the employer considers it insufficient to submit these documents to him in electronic form.
• Original documents giving the right to receive benefits paid from the social insurance fund.
• Certificates issued by the employer on paper at the request of the employee.
• A certified copy of the order to dismiss the employee.

The following may be transferred between the parties in the form of electronic documents:

• documents required to present upon employment;
• an agreed version of the employment contract, subject to further signing on paper;
• internal regulations;
• orders, instructions, notifications and requirements of the employer;
• statements and explanations of the employee;
• certificates issued in the form of an electronic document at the request of the employee.

The electronic document is signed with an enhanced qualified electronic signature of the sending party. The receiving party must respond with electronic confirmation of receipt of this document.

Remote dismissal

Help An employee can exercise his right to leave of his own free will at any time: both while on vacation and on sick leave. Therefore, to save time and convenience, he can send his resignation letter by mail. In this case, you will learn how to correctly determine the date of dismissal from this article. This can be done in several ways: Take the relevant request personally to the manager or to the HR department. Send your resignation letter by mail to your employer. In this case, it must be sent to the organization by registered mail with notification. In this case, it is advisable that the applicant fill out an inventory of the attachment in order to avoid disagreements regarding the contents of the letter.

VIDEO ON THE TOPIC: Who is not required to work two weeks upon dismissal

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In life, every person faces certain difficulties, the solution of which requires a deviation from some traditional rules and foundations. Work relationships are no exception. If you are in another city, your place of work is in a completely different region, and there is a need to terminate the employment agreement - it is not necessary to make a long journey to a personal meeting with your employer, you can quit remotely.

Termination of an employment contract for remote work

An employment contract for remote work can be terminated for all the reasons contained in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, as well as for additional reasons specified in the employment contract. For both types of remote work, an additional reason may be, for example, a one-time violation of a work deadline that does not have a valid reason. For work at home, which binds the employee to a specific place of work, it is possible to indicate the actual transfer of the place of work to a place located at a different address as the reason for dismissal.

Dismissal on the grounds included in the employment agreement is equivalent to dismissal at the initiative of the employer. But the employer will have to prove the occurrence of these grounds. If such a dismissal has taken place, then in the documents drawn up in connection with it, a reference will be made to Art. 312 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (for a home worker) or 312.5 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (for an employee who worked remotely).

Despite the validity of all the grounds for dismissal provided for by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, in reality it is impossible to dismiss a remote worker for absenteeism, being late or showing up at work in a state of intoxication, since the employer does not have the opportunity to control this.

The procedure for dismissing a remote worker itself is common, and it is also subject to restrictions that do not allow dismissals:

• during periods of illness, vacation, pregnancy;
• women with young children and single parents.

Features of document flow here apply to remote workers. Unlike a homeworker who uses traditional methods of exchanging documents with the employer, for a remote worker the procedure for dismissal on his own initiative will be as follows:

• An application for dismissal can be submitted not only in the usual way (on paper), but also in the form of an electronic document certified by an enhanced qualified electronic signature.
• The dismissal order is sent to the employee electronically, but a copy of it, drawn up on paper, must be sent to the employee by registered mail.
• The work record book (if it was transferred to the employer) and income certificates issued upon dismissal will also be sent to the employee by registered letter. But applications with a request to send a work book by mail and issue income certificates on paper can be submitted to the employer electronically.

For information on drawing up a dismissal order, read the article “Drafting a dismissal order (form, blank, sample).”

"Peaceful" dismissal

If he resigns of his own free will, the employer does not object, or the initiative was mutual, labor disputes can be avoided.

It is advisable to follow the following procedure:

• the employee writes a standard statement indicating the reason: at the mutual request of the parties or at his own request;
• the application must be scanned in good quality and sent to the employer using an electronic digital signature;
• unless the parties agree otherwise, the employee works remotely for another 2 weeks, like a regular employee;
• after receiving the dismissal order electronically, the citizen must sign it with his digital signature and send it to the employer, confirming that he has read the document;
• the work book at the request of the employee (if it was kept) must be sent by mail, as well as a paper version of the dismissal order.

Please note that the situation with a resignation letter from a remote employee has controversial issues.

Despite the fact that Federal Law No. 63 of 04/06/11 on digital signature allows the use of electronic documents on an equal basis with paper ones, the Labor Inspectorate insists: the application must be drawn up on paper (Article 80 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

Therefore, simply writing an application and sending it by email is a risky step. What is required is a written scanned version, confirmed by digital signature. It would also be useful to have the application notarized in advance.

Results

The peculiarities of the procedure for dismissal from remote work are determined by the special nature of the interaction between the employee and the employer in the process of such work.
This nature leads both to the emergence of additional grounds for dismissal and to the impossibility of actually applying some of the reasons named in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. While the process of dismissal from remote work is generally standard for remote workers, due to the availability of electronic exchange, there are special ways to submit and receive documents related to dismissal. You can find more complete information on the topic in ConsultantPlus. Full and free access to the system for 2 days.

Is it possible to quit without coming to work?

The Labor Code of the Russian Federation does not contain information prohibiting remote termination of an employment contract. The law does not establish a list of situations in which it is permissible to quit remotely. Therefore, each case should be considered individually. Coordinated actions between the subordinate and the manager will allow the dismissal to be carried out safely without a personal meeting.

The basis for the procedure may be:

• relocation of an employee to another location;
• making a decision to quit while living in another city during maternity leave;
• the employee’s health condition preventing his free movement;
• large distance between the central office and the place of work;
• conflictual relations with the organization’s personnel;
• other personal reasons.

Finding himself in such circumstances, an employee thinks about how to quit his job remotely at his own request without difficulty. No worries. Termination of cooperation will occur as usual.

The difference from the standard procedure is the need to exchange documents via mail. There is even the possibility of dismissal without work in the cases established by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

If there is an employment contract for remote work, the remote employee can resign in the same remote format in which the employment took place.