Anastasia Samusenko has explained the provisions on labour legislation for RBC

The governor of St Petersburg, Alexander Beglov, suspended the work of further education institutions. Despite the fact that while the measures are temporary, organisations are preparing for the worst case scenario. Accordingly employers are able to place staff on paid leave.

As explained to RBC Petersburg by Associate Anastasia Samusenko, such an initiative of putting staff on paid leave is illegal, but often happens with employees of private companies. In such a force majeure situation as now, employees of state institutions are more protected, because the wage fund in them is financed from the budget and does not depend on income and actual activity, the lawyer added.

According to Anastasia, today there is only one legal way to reduce costs – this is a temporary suspension of work. “Downtime for reasons beyond the control of the employer should be paid in the amount of at least two-thirds of the employee’s salary” however, that in the near future it may be difficult for many companies to pay even two-thirds.

To read the article (in Russian), please see the RBC website >>>