On December 13th, 2024, the President of Russia signed the Federal Law No. 470-FZ. This law amended certain rules of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

According to the new version of Article 59 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, by agreement of the parties, a fixed-term employment contract can be concluded, in particular, with the head of organization, his deputies and the chief accountant.

Previously, this rule allowed to conclude fixed-term employment contracts with “the heads, the deputy heads and the chief accountants of organizations”.

The amendment was made pursuant to the Resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated 19.12.2023 No. 59-P. The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation concluded that the legislator does not equate the notions “head of organization” and “head of structural unit of organization”.

Based on this, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation recognized that it is unacceptable to apply different approaches to the question whether it is allowed to conclude a fixed-term employment contract with employee who is head of structural unit of organization and to the question whether a head of structural unit of organization can be dismissed due to expiration of his or her employment contract.

In the new version of this rule, the legislator uses the term “head of organization” (instead of using the term “head”, as it did in the previous version). By doing so, the legislator prohibits the employer from limiting the period of work of employee who is head of structural unit of organization. 

Mosgo & Partners lawyers follow attentively all changes in order to suggest solutions that meet the interests and needs of our clients.