The Legal Nature of the Institute of Secondary Employment and the Validity of Differentiation of its Regulatory Regulation

• Main Author: Sergey V. Kichigin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Philosophy and Law 2021-04-01
• Series: Антиномии
• Subjects: secondary job; signs of secondary job; main job; main place of work; signs of main job; differentiation of legal regulation; work book; electronic work book

The problem of the validity of the differentiation of legal regulation of parttime work within the framework of the current Labor Code of the Russian Federation is based on the idea of this phenomenon that was developed in the Soviet period of history. Modern socio-economic conditions require a significant transformation of this institution of labor law on the basis of an adequate reflection in the norms of labor law of the changed living conditions of a person and society. Within the framework of this study, an attempt was made, based on the understanding of the term “secondary job” in the current labor legislation and the labor law science, to identify essential differences between secondary job and main job, i.e. to reveal objectively existing conditions of secondary job from the main job, which were the reason for differentiation of legal norms, regulating secondary job. In the course of the analysis of the legal norms governing the institute of secondary job, the analysis of the achievements of the science of domestic labor law and judicial practice, taking into account the history of legal regulation of this institution, it was found that the existing signs (characteristic features) of secondary job are either an external sign that does not reflect the internal nature of the phenomenon, or represent a discriminatory norm based on the simple fact of recognizing a particular job as secondary job. As a result, it was concluded that it was unreasonable to single out secondary job in a separate category, and the existence of a special chapter of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, dedicated to the peculiarities of regulating the labor of persons working secondary job, was groundless. As a practical recommendation, the author suggests adjustment of the provisions of labor legislation. It is proposed to abandon the traditional understanding of the term “part-time”, which implies the main and additional work, it is proposed in this situation to talk about the simultaneous presence of an employee of two or more equivalent employment contracts, none of which has priority over the others. It was proposed to move from limiting the time of part-time work to the establishment of a general maximum working time at all available jobs for the employee; to attribute the solution of the issue of simultaneous or separate granting of leave to an employee who has several places of work on a contractual basis (with the involvement of trade union organizations); to abolish a number of discriminatory norms currently in force against part-time workers.