Maternity leave and part-time work

Family Law > Benefits/Payments/Benefits > Part-time work for women with children under 14 years of age

The Labor Code provides for shortened working hours for women with children under 14 years of age, if necessary.

Russian legislation protects women's labor rights if they need to leave work early and provide any assistance to a child.

If the employer refuses to provide such a right to a woman, not only her rights will be violated, but also the rights of her child.

To be able to use your rights, you need to clearly know them. Only then will a person be able to take full advantage of them.

Legislation

Part-time work in Russia is understood as a form of human employment when the total working day is set less than what the employee must work by law.

This form can be set:

when hiring an employee;
subsequently during the work process.

This form of employment is regulated by the Labor Code in Article 93. However, there is no complete explanation of this concept.

But it can be found in the International Labor Convention. And it says that this working time is less in duration than the established standard working day.

The Labor Code provides for the organization of work in the following modes:

Reducing the length of a work shift or day by a certain number of hours.
Reducing the number of working days in a week, but with a standard number of working hours per working day.
Reducing the number of working hours per day and days per week.

It is important not to confuse a shortened day with an incomplete one. A shortened day is considered when a particular employee is legally entitled to work full time, but due to certain circumstances cannot do so.

And part-time work is established for those categories of citizens who, due to their age, health or harmfulness of the work itself, according to the law, should not work more than the established amount of time.

That is, a reduced number of working hours per day is the norm for them.

Who is eligible?

According to Article 93 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the following categories of citizens have the right to demand a shortened day:

parents of children under 14 years of age;
persons caring for a sick relative;
pregnant women.

All circumstances must be documented. To draw up such a schedule, simply write a statement to your manager and indicate the reason in it.

Not only the woman, but also the father of the child, as well as guardians, can be considered as a parent.

What the law says

Part 1 of Article 93 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation indicates that any employee can work part-time. To do this, you need to agree with the employer. But he has every right to refuse. If an agreement on establishing part-time work is nevertheless established, then the schedule itself will also have to be negotiated. Thus, the law does not prohibit an employee from working part-time, but the conditions must be agreed upon with the employer.

The following categories of persons have the right to demand a shortened working day:

pregnant women;
parent of a child under 14 years of age;
parent of a disabled child under 18 years of age;
worker caring for a sick family member.

The employer cannot refuse to work on a part-time basis to the above-mentioned persons (Part 2 of Article 93 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). This right is retained by the employee for the entire period during which he has circumstances that served as the basis for the provision of part-time work. At the request of the employee, the half-day period can be set for a shorter period.

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Registration procedure

To apply for part-time work for women with children under 14 years of age, you must complete the application correctly.

The procedure will be as follows:

It can be drawn up on a regular blank sheet of paper, or on the organization’s standard letterhead. The woman should check with her workplace about the availability of such a form in the accounting department or human resources department.
All applications are always made to the head of the enterprise. Therefore, in the header of the application you must indicate the name of the legal entity to whose head this document is being sent.
Next, you need to enter the name of the manager himself.
Below is the position and full name of the employee submitting this application.
In the middle of the document its name is written.
Next, the text is written stating that the applicant requests to provide part-time work in the amount of a certain number of hours from a certain date for a certain or indefinite period. The reason must also be indicated, due to the fact that the employee has a child under 14 years of age.
It is important to write that the baby’s birth certificate is attached and, in fact, attach a copy of the document.
Below is the date and signature of the employee.

Further, based on the received application, the manager is obliged to approve it. After this, the personnel officer writes an order assigning part-time work to this employee.

This order must specify the employee’s new schedule:

number of working days in a week;
the number of hours by which the working day is reduced;
length of the working week in hours;
working day schedule with all breaks.

It is important to know that the law on part-time work for women who have a child under 14 years of age does not give the right to demand payment for a full day of work if she works on a reduced schedule.

Wages are calculated in proportion to hours worked. Therefore, here a woman must choose what is more important to her, extra time spent with the child or a full day’s salary.

Change of employment contract

All changes in the work schedule must be recorded in the employment contract itself between the employer and employee.

If, upon employment, an employee being hired immediately tells the employer that he needs a shortened day, then this is stated in the main contract.

If such a need arose later, then the employment contract does not need to be rewritten, it is enough to just sign an additional agreement to it.

It will regulate the employee’s work procedure and the calculation of his wages according to the established shortened day.

This agreement is also signed in two copies. One of them is kept by the employer, and the other by the employee.

The validity of such an additional agreement can be established for a certain time, or for an unlimited period, as long as the employee has the right to do so.

Is it possible to work during maternity leave for up to 1.5 or 3 years?

To answer this question, you need to refer to Article 256 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, which talks about the rules for granting parental leave.
This article talks about the following:

the decree can be used in parts;
It is possible to work part-time while on maternity leave.

The first statement says that you can go on maternity leave, then interrupt it, return to work, and then take leave again. The number of parts is not limited. Theoretically, an employee can interrupt his vacation with full-time work an unlimited number of times and go on it again - details here.

As for the second statement, it confirms that it is possible to combine work with maternity leave, but only if the conditions for working part-time are met.

At the same time, the concept of “part-time” means that the employee must work less than the standard working day or week. For example, you can go part-time or work 3 or 4 days a week instead of 5.

When making decisions about working part-time, you need to discuss this point with the employer, agree on the duration of the work shift, and the number of working days per week.

It is also important to understand that you can ask an employer to leave on a part-time basis if the characteristics of the employee’s position allow him to work on a reduced schedule.

Article 256 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation also contains the possibility of combining maternity leave for up to 3 years with working from home.

Again, such an opportunity exists if the maternity leaver can perform her job duties outside the workplace. Almost every position has such an opportunity.

We invite you to read: Is it possible to get a mortgage while on maternity leave and in which banks in 2021

For example, if a woman worked as a salesperson before going on maternity leave with a child, then she cannot ask to work from home in this position.

It may be possible to negotiate with the employer about a temporary transfer to another position that allows you to work at home.

It makes sense to return from leave to part-time working conditions if the child is not yet 1.5 years old and a monthly maternity benefit is paid for him.

Often this opportunity is used by the father of a child whose income was higher than that of the mother. The husband arranges care for up to 1.5 years, he is assigned an allowance based on his earnings. Next, he asks for a part-time job and receives an additional salary.

At the same time, the child’s mother can also, if she wishes, return to work and receive wages there.

As a result, the total income in this situation turns out to be higher than when taking leave for a wife with a lower income and the father receiving a salary for a full day.

It is necessary to compare which option will be beneficial for the family.

Initially, an employee on maternity leave writes a statement, which serves as the basis for issuing an order.

In the order, the manager orders the accountant to continue paying the monthly allowance and pay the employee according to the hours worked on a part-time or weekly basis.

Nuances

It is important to know that a transfer to a shortened day can be carried out not only at the initiative of the employee himself, who has the right to do so by law. The employer himself can also become the initiator.

In this case, it will not matter whether the employee has official reasons for switching to a shortened day or not. This practice is often used by organizations to avoid staff reductions but save on labor costs.

In this case, an order must be issued and all employees must be familiarized with it 2 months before they are transferred to a shortened day.

Maternity leave

A woman has the right to stay in it until the child turns 3 years old . In this case, the employer will be obliged to pay her monthly 40% of her average monthly income for the last 2 years until the child reaches one and a half years old.

The law establishes that, if she wishes, she has the opportunity to work part-time while retaining her right to receive this benefit.

However, the number of hours by which she can reduce her working day is not regulated by law.

It turns out that a woman can reduce her working day by only 1 hour and receive additional benefits. Or it may only work for half a day or just a few hours.

In addition, a woman’s working time will also include the periods necessary to feed the child. To do this, she must write in the application how many times a day and for how long she will have to leave her workplace.

She will also be entitled to breaks for rest and food, like a regular employee.

All hours that a woman works in excess of the norm must be paid overtime.

In addition, she retains the right to a shortened pre-holiday working day, like all other employees.

Violation of women's rights

A woman who has a child under 14 years of age is required to request a shortened working day in writing in the form of an application. If the employer ignores her right, she must contact the Labor Inspectorate or the Prosecutor's Office.

These government bodies were created with the aim of protecting the violated rights of citizens and monitoring the implementation of the norms and requirements of the law by citizens and legal entities.

To file a complaint, a woman will also have to fill out an application indicating the government agency to which she is sending it. The statement must state in detail the essence of the rights violated, and also indicate the date when the statement was written.

These employees will be required to conduct an inspection within 30 days and provide a written response based on its results.

If a violation is detected in 2021, the employer is subject to the following types of liability:

for an individual entrepreneur, the fine will range from 1,000 to 5,000 rubles;
for an organization from 30,000 to 50,000 rubles;
for an official from 1000 to 5000 rubles.

In case of repeated violation, these fines may be increased and the official may be disqualified..

During the inspection, inspection staff may identify other violations. Therefore, employers usually do not like to contact such employees.

If the manager does not want to provide a shortened day, the employee may only need to mention that he will complain to the Labor Inspectorate, and his request will be immediately satisfied. Therefore, it is important to know your rights and be able to defend them.

to the article “Part-time work for women with children under 14 years old”

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Natalya writes:
And if I write such a statement and they ask me to resign, what should I do?
Answer
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Anonymous writes:
Hello, when I was applying for a job there was the opportunity to work on a flexible schedule, now my child goes to kindergarten and I can’t work in the evening because I need to pick up the child at 17:00. The employer does not agree to a schedule from 8 to 17, tell me what to do?
Answer
V
Nicholas writes:
Father can leave work an hour early on Friday with 2 dependent children
Answer
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Dilyara writes:
How can I legally reduce the working day of a mother who is raising a child alone, in connection with his going to school, and what kind of financial assistance can I get?!
Answer