What formalities are required to get the status of unemployed person. How to get yourself recorded at the employment center and what amounts are payable to unemployed persons. What to do if your employment rights are infringed.
The procedure for obtainment of the status of unemployed person as well as the general rules of appointment and payment of public welfare to unemployed persons are set by the Federal Law “On Employment” and the relevant regulations of the RF Government, ministries and departments in charge. Registration and recordal of unemployed persons are performed by employment centers, which are also responsible for providing assistance in search for and getting jobs.
To obtain the status of unemployed, the person who has lost his job should apply to his local employment center to be recorded for the purpose of search for a job for which the person is fit. The recordal is made on the basis of the person’s CV and application in which he should specifically mention that he wishes to obtain the status of unemployed. These documents should be submitted to the employment center electronically via the uniform digital platform ‘Job in Russia’, Gosuslugi (Government Services) or regional platforms. If the applicant has no account at Gosuslugi or has difficulties with submission of his application, the employment center should help him create his account and submit the required documents.
Within 11 business days after the registration, the person will be invited to visit the employment center to receive a decision on giving him the status of unemployed. It should be noted that, according to the temporary rules effective in Moscow until the end of 2022, decisions on the status of unemployed is taken without the applicant’s personal visit to the employment center, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus infection.
Generally, all the documents required for giving the status of unemployed are requested by the employment center from other relevant departments by way of interdepartmental interaction, including job history, records on average earnings at the last job, education and qualifications, validity of the applicant’s passport and registered residential address. If the employment center does not received for any reason such records, the applicant will have to submit them personally, of which he should be notified.
Submission of untrue information by the applicant will be the ground for refusal of the status of unemployed. The status of unemployed will also be refused if the applicant receives any pension, including an early retirement pension, or rejected 2 job proposals for which he is fit during 10 days after his registration at the employment center or twice refused to be interviewed for the proposed vacancies or failed to submit information on the completed interviews or failed to come to the employment center on the scheduled date. Apart from that, the status of unemployed cannot be given to a person who meets the criteria for ‘employed population’ set in Article 2 of the Employment Law, e.g. he is registered as individual entrepreneur or self-employed or performs works under a civil-law agreement or authorship agreement or has been elected to a paid office or is a full-time student (except for education under the direction of the employment center) or is doing military service or is a member of a farm household or a participant/shareholder of a commercial organization.
When the employment center takes a decision on to give the status of unemployed to the applicant, it at the same time appoints unemployment payment for such person.
Generally, unemployment payment is 75% of the unemployed person’s average earnings at his last job during the first three months of unemployment and 60% of the average earnings during the following three months, provided that unemployment payment may not exceed the maximum limits set by the RF Government annually. For 2022, the maximum unemployment payments are RUB 12,792 during the first thee months of unemployment and RUB 5,000 during the following three months of unemployment. To get such unemployment payments an unemployed person should obtain the status of unemployed within one year after his employment termination for any reason other than his fault and provided that his employee/employer relationship had lasted no less than 26 weeks before his termination. A person who does not meet these criteria is eligible for the minimum unemployment payment, which is RUB 1,500 in 2022, and the total unemployment payment period is three months and not six months. Some categories of unemployed may be eligible for a longer period of unemployment payments. For instance, persons nearing retirement age may be eligible for a 12-month’s period and in some case a 24-months period of unemployment payments.
The status of unemployed entitled the unemployed person to unemployment payments, but it also imposes certain duties aimed at prompting him to proactively seek for jobs and at preventing unreasonable refusals of job proposals. Failure to comply with such duties entails suspension of unemployment payments and may be the ground for cancelation of the unemployed person’s record at the employment center.
In particular, unemployment payments may be suspended if the unemployed person rejects jobs proposed by the employment center, for which he is fit; or refuses to take part in paid welfare works or to undergo training under the direction of the employment center or is dismissed from such training courses for guilty actions or absences from training courses or underperformance; or fails to appear for an interview with a potential employer proposed by the employment center. Continuous failure (over 1 month) without good reason to visit the employment center for re-registration, refusal of involvement of the employment center as intermediary or appointment of pension pays will be valid reasons for cancelation of the unemployment status and termination of unemployment payments.
The Government provides certain support and guarantees to unemployed, although they are very limited. Under the circumstances, it is critical that an unemployed person be aware of his/her rights during the employment period or in case of any employee/employer conflicts and be able to exercise remedies afforded by law to protect such rights.
The main remedies include self-defense, submission of complaints about employer’s unlawful actions to the government labor inspection and the prosecutor’s office and employee’s going to court. Self-defense includes, in particular, the employee’s right to suspend his work in case of delays in payment of his salary for more than 15 days or to perform work which is not envisaged by his employment agreement. The government labor inspection and the prosecutor’s office eagerly react to complaints about employer’s failure to pay salaries or meet labor protection requirements. In case of disputes relating to employment termination or disciplinary sanctions or refusal of employment or coercion into a fixed-term employment agreement without valid reason, it is worth going to court forthwith, because these are individual employment disputes which are subject to consideration by court.