"Эффективный контракт" в трудовом праве

Abstract

In the Russian legislation of the 20th century the terms “contract” and “employment agreement” were used as synonyms. With the adoption of the Labour Code of the Russian Federation this duality has been eliminated. The agreement under the name “Employment Contract (Agreement)” has come to be used as the basis for the emergence of labor relations with employees, and the agreement under the name “Contract (Service Contract)” has come to be used as an agreement with those entering state service institutions. For example, in accordance with the Federal Law of 27.07.2004 No. 79-FZ “On State Civil Service of the Russian Federation” a person entering any state service institution has to sign a formal agreement under the name “contract”. Recently the term “effective contract” has been introduced into the documents of the Russian Government. “Effective contract” is an employment agreement with an employee whereby his duties, responsibilities and the terms of payment are specified. It includes assessment indicators (indices) for measuring the efficiency of the employee’s performance with the view of assigning monetary incentive payments to him depending on the results of his work and on the quality of services being rendered; it also serves as a measure of social support. It is true that the performance of such sectors of economy as healthcare and education, for instance, must be improved and their efficiency increased. Still, an “effective contract” for an employee is legal nonsense. The purpose of the author is to argue that on the basis of Russian labor laws and, above all, of the Labour Code, it is solely “employment agreement” that an employee shall enter, however identical the conceptual categories of “contract” and “employment agreement” might seem. These concepts are not recognized synonyms in Russian law. Hence, there is no need to substitute the name “effective contract” for the name “employment agreement”. Such a renaming will not contribute to the accessibility and better efficiency of education, healthcare and other public sectors of Russian economy. Similarly, it will not help to increase the level of their performance. The author concludes that the current labor legislation contains all the necessary elements to regulate labor relations in public sectors of economy, so no “effective contract” is needed.