Vasilieva Je.S., Vereshchak S.B.

Organization of distance labor: law enforcement practice and development trends

Keywords: distance employment, remote work, reimbursement of expenses, compensation for the use of personal property, employment contract.

Distance employment has maintained steady growth trends over the past three to five years. The main impetus for the development of this method of labor organization was received during the pandemic and post-pandemic periods. Despite the revision of provisions of this institute in December 2020, certain provisions of Chapter 49.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation in practice create situations of legal uncertainty that the employer uses in order to save resources and maximize the benefits of the remote worker's work. The purpose of the study is to analyze the practice of law enforcement of norms on reimbursement of expenses to a remote worker for the use of personal property in performing his work function and to identify trends in the development of legislation in this area. Materials and methods. The content analysis method was used to determine the approaches of law enforcement agencies (employers and courts) to solving the problem of compensating the employee for the use of personal or rented equipment and facilities necessary to perform the work function remotely. The methods of analysis, generalization and comparison were used in the study of judicial practice in disputes over compensating a remote worker for the use of personal property. The combination of comparison methods and system analysis made it possible to determine further ways of legislative decisions on distance labor organization. The statistical method gave the opportunity to compare the spread of remote employment of workers from 2019 to 2025. Formal legal and comparative legal methods were used in studying the norms of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation on remote work and the specifics of its regulation in an individually contractual manner. The analysis of implemented legislative provisions on distance work organization in the texts of employment contracts and the practice of their assessment by the courts in the event of disputes over reimbursement of expenses is carried out. Results. In Russia, due attention is not paid to the problem of remote work and the difficulties of its organization. Nevertheless, changing economy and the level of digitalization clearly demonstrate that today, even the simplest work functions require advanced tools (phone, tablet, laptop, etc.) and protective equipment (anti-virus, secure flash drives, trusted download modules, trusted platform modules, access control and management systems, etc.) and communications. Russian practice in this area shows that the burden of expenses most often lies on an employee who is interested in performing a labor function effectively, which contradicts the essence of the employment relationship. This shift in emphasis is explained by the fact that the spread of this type of employment in Russia began later than in other countries (80–90s of the XX century). Current legislative regulation is generally developing in line with international practice. Blanket wording of article 312.6 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, on the one hand, allows for individual contractual regulation of this issue, on the other hand, a specific employer in an employment contract with an employee avoids or deliberately does not include provisions in it, and also does not specify in local regulations the procedure and conditions for reimbursement of expenses incurred by a remote employee in connection with remote performance of work duties. A paradoxical situation is emerging: the legislator believes that the parties to an employment relationship must independently reach an appropriate agreement, and the law enforcement officer suggests resolving this issue in accordance with the procedure provided for by labor legislation. In this regard, attention is drawn to the risks that place a burden on the employee: a labor dispute, going to court if it is impossible to resolve the differences that have arisen, difficulties in proving the costs incurred, satisfaction of claims in part or based on the minimum costs recognized by law. Trends in legislative decisions should involve forming a transparent mechanism for compensating the costs incurred by a remote worker for tools and protective equipment used to perform a labor function. Conclusions. The analysis of court decisions on remote work organization confirmed the expediency of new legislative decisions by mandating in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation a list of mandatory conditions of an employment contract with a remote worker, especially on the procedure, conditions and terms of compensating for the costs associated with the use of personal or rented equipment to perform a labor function.

About authors

Vasilieva Jeanne S.

Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, Department of Public Law, Chuvash State University, Russia, Cheboksary (kaf_advok@mail.ru; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1880-3309)

Vereshchak Svetlana B.

Candidate of Law Sciences, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Theory and History of State and Law, Chuvash State University, Russia, Cheboksary (veres_k@mail.ru; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9335-2501)

Article link

Vasilieva Je.S., Vereshchak S.B. Organization of distance labor: law enforcement practice and development trends [Electronic resource] // Oeconomia et Jus. – 2026. – №3. P. 71-80. – URL: https://oecomia-et-jus.ru/en/single/2026/3/6/. DOI: 10.47026/2499-9636-2026-3-71-80.

Copyright holder: authors. License: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)