What is a maternity rate: pros, cons and nuances of registering as a temporary worker

In addition to the main employees with whom a permanent contract has been concluded, the company may also have temporary workers on its staff. Usually they are hired to replace a person who has gone on maternity leave. In this case, the salary is the same as for the main employee. Before agreeing to apply for such a position, you need to understand what the maternity rate is: general information will make it clear what the pros and cons are in temporary work.

What it is?

There are situations when, when applying for a job, the head of the company informs the candidate that the position is maternity leave.
The main employee went on maternity leave and plans to return to her previous position at the end of this period. Not all citizens know what the maternity rate means. This definition should be understood as working at a temporarily free rate during the entire period while the main employee is at home with a small child.

The period of incapacity for work due to pregnancy and childbirth (BiR), according to Article No. 255 of the Labor Code of Russia, lasts at least 140 days. In the case of complicated births or multiple pregnancies, it will be longer. As a rule, a period of time off from work to care for a child immediately follows the labor leave. It can last 1.5 or 3 years.

In modern labor legislation there is no concept of “maternity pay”. It existed during the USSR period, but today it can also be heard often.

Legal Features

Article 225 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation establishes the employee’s right to rest, in particular, the opportunity for women to take maternity leave.
By law, maternity leave lasts 140 days: 70 days before birth and 70 days after birth. But it can be extended to one and a half to three years to care for the baby. For this entire period, the mother is officially released from work. When an employed woman goes on maternity leave, her position at the enterprise becomes vacant for a while. To prevent work from being “idle,” the manager can appoint a new person to the vacancy by concluding a fixed-term contract with him. This is a document that is concluded between the employer and employee for a certain period. It establishes legal guarantees for both parties to the employment transaction. However, the agreement may not indicate a specific date when it terminates.

How is it different from the usual one?

The maternity rate is different from the regular rate. It is important to compare these two concepts. The difference is quite significant and highlights all the advantages and disadvantages of each employment option. The differences and common features are shown in the table below.

Should I offer free parts of bets?

Most courts believe that free parts of the pay for a position for which another employee has already been hired for part of the pay, including part-time, do not need to be offered, since this position is not vacant.

The Leninsky District Court of Cheboksary, in its decision dated December 14, 2015 in case No. 2-3958/2015, when resolving the issue of whether it is necessary to offer the remaining parts of the rates not occupied by part-time workers to the employee subject to dismissal, noted that

The positions of a methodologist in the department of emergency and consultative medical care were not vacant, since 0.25 of the rates for them were occupied by part-time workers.

The decision of the Central District Court of Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo Region dated February 19, 2018 in case No. 2-392/2018 indicated that the court did not agree with the plaintiff’s arguments that she should have been offered a vacant 0.5 rate not occupied by four employees ,

...since the hiring of these persons at 0.5 rates was solely due to the fact that they were hired on an external part-time basis. Accordingly, by virtue of Art. 284 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the working hours of external part-time workers could not exceed 4 hours a day with appropriate remuneration... Positions occupied by external part-time workers cannot be recognized as vacant, since they cannot be considered free.

There are also opposite decisions, which indicate that the remaining parts of the rates should be offered to laid-off employees, since this is not about offering a vacant position, but about the vacant part of the rate.

Let us quote the Appeal ruling of the Novosibirsk Regional Court dated July 13, 2017 in case No. 33-6613/2017:

In support of the arguments of the appeal, it is stated that the decision is illegal and unfounded. The appellant points out that the positions specified in the court decision are not vacant, since... they are occupied by employees. The appellant believes that the court’s conclusion that if for any staffing position half of the rate is occupied by a part-time worker, then the remaining half of the rate is considered vacant, contradicts established judicial practice...

The arguments of the appeal that the court came to the conclusion that when an employee is laid off should be offered positions occupied by part-time workers, are unfounded. The court, satisfying the plaintiff’s demands, came to the conclusion that the employee should not be offered positions occupied by part-time workers, but free rates, namely: 0.5 times the rate of an operator position; 0.5 rate for the position of office cleaner; 0.5 site cleaner rate; 0.5 building duty rate.

An analysis of judicial practice on the issue of the need to offer the remaining part-time positions for positions for which part-time workers are hired allows us to conclude that the number of court decisions in which such a need is confirmed is significantly lower than when there is no need to offer.

At the same time, representatives of Rostrud in consultations also confirm the position that when laying off jobs, it is necessary to offer vacant positions, and not parts of these positions (parts of rates).

Therefore, if, for example, an employee is assigned part-time work, due to which he takes only part of the full rate provided for in the staffing table, then there is no need to offer the rest of the rate to the laid-off employee, since the position is not vacant. At the same time, do not forget that an employee who is assigned part-time work may subsequently ask the employer to transfer him to full-time work. And if the employee subject to layoff were transferred to the remaining part of the rate, then it would become impossible to transfer the “main” employee to full-time work.

Advantages and disadvantages of a fixed-term employment contract

Before agreeing to take a temporary job, you need to consider all the pros and cons of the maternity rate. This will help you understand whether it is really worth choosing such a position or whether it is better to find a permanent place of work.

Advantages of maternity pay for an employee:

• the salary of a temporary employee is not lower than the main one;
• working on maternity leave is counted towards the length of service;
• the employee has the opportunity to show himself. If he proves himself well, then in the future he can be transferred to a permanent position and conclude an indefinite employment contract with him;
• the employee has the right to receive annual paid leave;
• invulnerability. According to the current legislation of Russia, a maternity position cannot be removed from the staffing table. Therefore, in the event of a layoff at the enterprise, the temporary worker will be protected (even if he has low qualifications and poor labor productivity);
• financial compensation is provided for unused vacation days;
• Temporary employees are subject to lower professional requirements. This is due to the fact that most citizens are looking for a main place of work and the administration of the enterprise has limited time to find a replacement for a woman who has gone on maternity leave.

Disadvantages of maternity pay for an employee:

• The worker's position is unstable. The employment contract may not be renewed after expiration. If there are no available vacancies, the employee will be fired after the maternity leave;
• It is impossible to determine the exact expiration date of a fixed-term employment contract. This is due to the fact that at any time a woman on maternity leave can apply and go to work;
• labor rights are minimally protected;
• A temporary employee is not entitled to bonus payments upon dismissal. They only accrue wages and compensate for unused vacation;
• the maximum duration of temporary work is three years;
• a temporary pregnant employee may be fired if the main employee leaves. She will have to look for a job again. She will lose her seniority and child benefits.

Disadvantages of maternity pay for employers:

• temporary work reduces the employee’s motivation to do good, quality work;
• the vacancy is unattractive for applicants. Therefore, finding a qualified specialist on maternity leave is problematic.

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Transition from a temporary rate to a permanent one

A transfer from a fixed-term position to a main one is made if the person has demonstrated his ability to work and clearly fulfilled the tasks assigned to him. Often the procedure is carried out when a woman raising a child decides to quit. Then the process is associated with the following nuances:

• the replacement may be led through the termination of the contract and then enter into a new agreement;
• When transferring a person, it is necessary to form an application, draw up an order and make a corresponding entry in the work book.

If a temporary employee continues to carry out activities after termination of relations with the employer, then the transfer is made automatically ( Article 72.72 of the Labor Code of Russia ).

Features of registration of a temporary employee

Registration of a temporary worker in place of a maternity leaver has its own characteristics.
The head of the company needs to know about them in order to carry out the procedure in accordance with the requirements of labor legislation. The design involves:

• acceptance of an application addressed to the director of the company with a request for employment for a vacant position.
• consideration of the application and visa approval;
• preparation of documents necessary for registration of an employee, in accordance with Article No. 65 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. These include: SNILS, civil passport, work book, education document. Additionally, you may need: a driver's license, military registration document, police clearance certificate;
• issuance of an order for registration on maternity leave based on the application. It makes a note that the nature of the work is temporary;
• conclusion of a fixed-term employment contract in two copies. One option is given to the employee.

Temporary work is subject to labor legislation, local regulations, and internal regulations.

Design nuances

Not all employers are willing to wait until their employee returns from vacation. Due to his workload, he cannot take on her responsibilities and begins to look for a person to whom he can delegate them. Some people are lucky right away, and a suitable candidate quickly responds to a last-minute offer. But most often this takes several months.

There are two ways to “close” an empty workplace:

• Combination of positions or internal transfer;
• Hiring a new employee.

Sometimes an employer refuses to hire an outsider full-time.
It is easier for him to divide responsibilities between “trusted” subordinates who have been at headquarters for a long time. If the position of an employee who has gone on maternity leave does not require a special level of qualifications, her duties are assigned to another employee on the basis of an additional agreement to the employment contract. It is not necessary to make changes to the work book: the mark is placed only in the employee’s personal file. The hiring of new employees is always confirmed by order. A corresponding entry is made in the employee’s work books. But the director does not have the right to set the exact date of his dismissal: this will happen when the employee who gave birth to a child decides to go to work.

Recruitment procedure

Proper registration of an employee on staff is another requirement of labor legislation. Hiring a person for a maternity position is almost no different from the standard procedure described in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Moreover, small companies and individual entrepreneurs keep personnel records in a simplified manner.

Let's consider the situation with the employment of a “recruit” in a vacant position. The procedure consists of several stages:

1. Acceptance and review of job applications. It must be drawn up in the name of the head of the company. The document is not mandatory, but it significantly simplifies personnel records management;
2. Verification and approval of the candidate. This stage involves careful work by the security service;
3. Preparation of documents. Each employee must have a work record book, as well as copies of a passport, SNILS, school leaving certificate and diplomas of secondary or higher education. In some cases, a medical record, driver's license, military ID or a certificate of no criminal record is required;
4. Drawing up an order for the hiring or temporary transfer of an employee to a maternity vacancy. Based on it, a personal employee card is created;
5. Concluding a fixed-term contract between an employer and a subordinate. One copy remains in the hands of the new employee, and the second is transferred to the personnel department. The maximum validity period of such an agreement is five years;
6. Making an entry in the work book. This responsibility lies with the HR department employee. The entry must correspond to the text of the employment order.

Working conditions should be discussed at the interview stage. The director can only guess the period for which the employment contract is drawn up and warn the replacement employee that the young mother can return to her previous position at any time. But this fact does not negate the existence of a probationary period: the employer has a maximum of 3 months to take a closer look at the candidate.

If the applicant has not worked anywhere before, he will have to get a work book. Most likely, you will also be required to provide an INN - without it you cannot pay personal income tax and report to the tax office.

Is it worth going to work on maternity leave?

A person must decide for himself whether to go to work on maternity leave. To make it easier to decide, you should weigh the pros and cons of such employment.

It is important to understand that filling a maternity position is associated with a number of risks. It is better for an employee who has little or no work experience to take a job as a maternity leaver. This is a great option to start with. It gives you a chance to get into a good position, try yourself, open up, and learn something.

This is also a suitable option for those who need work urgently and temporarily. It is worth noting that the maternity rate is not the best option for people who strive for stability. After the departure of the main employee, the temporary worker may not be retained on staff, but may be fired due to lack of vacancies or poor professional qualities.

But, if you rely only on stability when choosing a place to work, then there is a possibility of a mistake. The labor market is constantly transforming. Automation of processes leads to the need for reductions. A bad economic situation can cause bankruptcy and liquidation of an enterprise.

Therefore, even if you get a job at your main job, there is a chance that you won’t be able to work at it until you get old. Having proven himself well in a temporary position, the employee has a chance that the head of the enterprise will offer a transfer to another place.

This is a good way to grow your career. Therefore, it is necessary to decide whether to agree to a maternity rate based on the characteristics and characteristics of the enterprise and the existing prospects.

It is not recommended for single mothers or women planning a pregnancy to go to work in such a place. This is due to the fact that a maternity position does not guarantee the protection of labor rights. A temporary employee can be fired at any time, which will deprive her of the right to payments.

Disadvantages of this type of work

• You're not here for long . The main disadvantage of such a proposal is the unpredictability and vagueness of the future. This affects various aspects of quality of life. For example, taking out a mortgage on a home or taking out a car loan is much calmer if you have a permanent place of income assigned to you. Taking on financial obligations, even if necessary, is much more difficult when there is a risk of losing your job, because it is not always possible to find a new place quickly.
• No financial compensation . When working at a temporary rate, you need to be prepared for the fact that even tomorrow you can quit in one day, and the maximum you will receive in addition to your monthly salary is compensation for unpaid vacation.
• Human factor . Getting to know the person whose salary you will be working for is not a frequent opportunity for candidates. In addition to general uncertainty, the question arises: “When will I know that my stay at the company has come to an end?” A permanent employee can announce his resignation at any time and the employer will not be able to interfere with this decision, which means there will be little time to notify a temporary employee. Circumstances will not turn out to your advantage, but you should always be prepared for this.
• Thin ice . Sometimes it turns out that the relationship with the manager does not work out. If this happened to a temporary employee, then the employer has an ace up his sleeve for this case. To resolve the issue with undesirable personnel, the main employee is invited to return from maternity leave, who, with the help of an application, carries out the exit procedure for 1 working day, after which he has the right to write an application and return to maternity leave before the expiration of its legislative period. In this case, you will have no choice but to resign due to the departure of the main employee. Don’t be surprised if a week later you again see an advertisement on the job search portal about an already familiar vacancy.
• Decree and decree are different . It is quite difficult for an employee who is going on maternity leave while on a temporary position to receive conditions equivalent to those provided to pregnant and postpartum women on a permanent basis. The tenure will be interrupted at the moment when the permanent employee begins his duties. Cash payments will disappear during the same period.
• Time to say goodbye . No matter how interesting the functionality is, the team is wonderful, and the working conditions are loyal, you need to come to terms with the idea that you will have to part with it. At any moment beyond your control.

Is it possible to go on maternity leave from a temporary position?

It happens that an employee hired temporarily on maternity leave also plans to take leave for labor and labor and child care. This is a rather difficult situation for an employer. Not everyone knows how to deal with such an employee. Some deliberately violate the employee’s rights, citing her legal illiteracy (they fire her, don’t pay her, don’t issue her leave, etc.).

A number of questions arise for temporary workers:

• Is it possible to go on maternity leave?
• Will my job be saved?
• Will the required payments be accrued?

By law, all these rights are reserved for women. In order to register a period of incapacity for work under the BiR and receive financial assistance, one condition must be met: bring sick leave before the main employee returns.

Based on this paper, the woman will be granted leave and money will be transferred. If the main employee’s maternity leave lasts three years, then the temporary worker also has the right to take maternity leave. During this time, she will receive maternity benefits. According to the law, an employer does not have the right to fire a woman who is on sick leave or on vacation.

If the main employee decides to leave maternity leave early, then the temporary worker should be offered other vacancies available at the enterprise. It is important that the positions correspond to the woman’s specialty, her state of health, and do not require retraining.

If the employee refuses the offered positions, then she may be fired. In this case, all benefits will need to be registered with the social protection authorities at the place of registration.

Should I offer part-time wages during layoffs?

Now let's move on to the question of whether it is necessary to offer part-time pay during the reduction. Let us immediately note that if the staffing table contains a part-time rate for a particular position, for example, 0.5 staff units, and this position is clearly vacant (that is, no employee has been hired for it as a full-time employee of the organization) .5 rates or less), then you need to offer this position to the person being laid off. However, the question of whether it is necessary to offer the remainder of the salary for a position for which an employee has already been hired is no longer so clear-cut.

Let's assume that in the staffing table there is one full rate for the position of sales manager. A part-time employee has been hired for this position at 0.5 rates. In this case, will the remaining 0.5 rates be vacant and is it necessary to offer them to the redundant purchasing manager if his qualifications meet the requirements for the position of sales manager?

In our opinion, there is no need to offer these remaining half-time rates. Most court decisions confirm our position. However, in this matter there is no complete uniformity in judicial practice.