The obligation to employ disabled people to comply with the established quotas

LEGAL DIGEST, NEWS \ 28.09.2021

The President of the Russian Federation has signed a Law establishing the obligation for employers to employ disabled people in order to comply with the established quotas.

According to the document, starting from March 1, 2022, the quota for hiring disabled people is considered fulfilled by the employer in the case of registration of an employment relationship with a disabled person. This means that, as before, it will not be enough to fulfill the quota by fixing the number of jobs for disabled people only in the internal regulatory document act of the company. It will require the actual employment of such a category of employees in the company.

The new provisions of the Law establish that the number of employees for the purposes of calculating the quota for hiring disabled people is determined based on the average number of employees (ANE) without taking into account employees of branches and representative offices of the employer. When calculating the quota, employees whose working conditions at their workplaces are classified as harmful or dangerous will be excluded from the ANE.

Please be reminded that the quota is the minimum number of jobs for the employment of disabled people from the average number of employees. It amounts to:

• 2 to 4% (with a number of employees of over 100 people);
• not more than 3% (with a number of employees ranging from 35 to 100 people). 

Based on the established quotas of the organization:

• the number of jobs for the disabled people is determined and the procedure for their allocation in an internal regulatory document is fixed (for example, in the Regulation on the quota of jobs for the disabled people). At the same time, it is possible to document a specific number of such jobs by separate corporate orders;
• working conditions are created in accordance with an individual programme for the rehabilitation or habilitation of a disabled person;
• information regarding compliance with disabled job quotas is submitted to the Employment Centre on a monthly basis.

A jobs quota mechanism, the quota size, employers’ obligations, and the deadline for and form of reporting to an employment centre can be set at the regional level. In such a case, we recommend examining in detail the legislation of the Russian constituent entity where the company is located. At present, the following regional quotas have been established for companies:

• in Moscow – 2%;
• in St. Petersburg – 2.5%.

Please contact Acsour’s experts on issues concerning the employment of disabled people.