Work under the moon will be more expensive than under the sun
The fate of Sergey Ivanichenko, a resident of the Kemerovo region, is an example of the fact that every Russian can not only force the employer to fully fulfill his obligations to the worker, but also improve the current state system of wages. The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, which studied the plaintiff's case, ruled that from now on, the overtime service of an ordinary security guard or a child nanny should be calculated based on the minimum wage, and not on the basis of penny calculations of unscrupulous businessmen.
The story of Sergey Ivanichenko is simple and unpretentious. In January 2019, he tripled as a watchman in the Anzhero-Sudzhensky urban district. Accounting documents and cultural and economic regional objects had to be protected. The work schedule turned out to be shifty and irregular: I had to go out at night and on holidays. Monthly income was formed from the size of the official salary, which at the time of the conclusion of the contract was 2.8 thousand rubles, and then increased to 3.2 thousand rubles. At the time of transfer of each principal amount of income, he was paid an additional payment up to the minimum wage (minimum wage) based on hours worked, and a regional coefficient of 1.3 times was applied.
“Apparently, when hiring, the employee was promised that the nominal amount of salary is just a hint of the total amount of income, which, taking into account various compensations, should be much higher,” said Sergey Suverov, investment strategist at Arikapitlal Investment Company. — Such a system is quite acceptable: the daily protection of a small regional facility that is not at risk of attack by terrorist and criminal structures requires three to four territorial bypasses. Duty in the 2 + 2 or 3 + 2 format (number of days off and working days per week) must be compensated by law. Low regional rates and actual wage-based overtime compensation often result in an organization's night worker being paid less than their daytime counterpart.”
Actually, in favor of such an opportunity, a new decision of the Constitutional Court of Russia operates. In accordance with the adopted document, an employee who works at night and overtime should receive a salary compensated not on the basis of an employment collective agreement with the organization, but on the basis of the minimum wage indexed every year by the state.
“The regulations of the Labor Code that have been in force until recently assume that overtime work is paid for the first two hours at a rate of one and a half, for the following hours — at a double rate,” explains ex-Deputy Minister of Labor, trade unionist Pavel Kudyukin. On the ground, such a wording of the law became the reason for various interpretations of the execution of the federal document. Since the current version of the Labor Code does not actually contain the concept of overtime pay, each company uses its own settlement mechanism: some employees are used at night, others are used during the day. “It can be a job as a security guard or a night nanny, it doesn’t matter,” Suverov notes. — Since coordination between work in different segments of the day does not always exist, and the employees themselves are far from always disposed to talk about their own finances, the salaries of employees of the same professional level can differ by 1.5, -2 times. The new legislative requirements are aimed at smoothing this balance, bringing both sides closer to a common denominator.”
Thus, now, after considering the claim of Sergei Ivanichenko, the Constitutional Court notes, work at night, since such work is beyond regulatory framework, in any case, paid at an increased rate. However, when calculating salaries, it is no longer the corporate tariff rate or the salary of the employee under the contract, which may turn out to be less than the minimum wage, that is taken into account, but the minimum amount of increase in pay for overtime hours established by the government of the Russian Federation.
“The positive part of such a decision is obvious — deductions in the Social (former Pension) Fund will theoretically grow, — notes Kudyukin. “However, real fiscal allocations may decline as many middle-class entrepreneurs again prefer informal payments to their employees “in envelopes”, the amounts of which, again, will be set on the informal field.”