Unreasonably Privileged Position of a Relocated Employee
The research features the institution of relocation of an employee to another employer for permanent position. The author compares the legal status of the relocated employee and the employee with a labor contract. According to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, an employee relocated to a full-time job is placed in an unreasonably privileged position in comparison with those who resigned and were routinely hired for a new job. Resignation and relocation do not have significant substantive differences, as well as the routine employment procedure and relocation. However, the law establishes two significant advantages for the relocated employee. First, the new employer is obliged to sign a labor contract with the relocated employee within one month from the date of dismissal. Second, the position is reserved for the relocated employee, even if it is still occupied by another employee who is in the process of dismissal. Therefore, the law denies the resigning employee the right to withdraw the application. This situation is unacceptable as it violates the rights of employees, because the artificially allocated category of relocated employees gets unjustified privileges from the employer. As a result, there is a discrimination of the overwhelming number of employees hired in the general manner, including those who signed a contract with a delayed start date. The author proposes to exclude from the Labor Code of the Russian Federation the norm on relocation of an employee to a permanent job to another employer, as well as the related norms in Articles 64, 70, and 77. The norms do not fit into the current socio-economic conditions and comply neither with international nor with Russian laws. In order to stimulate the parties to pre-register an employment contract, the author proposes to establish job guarantees that are currently applied to relocated workers for those with a labor contract with a postponed date.