In many regions, health care organizations refuse to pay additional benefits to employees who work with COVID-19 patients. Capital Legal Services lawyers have prepared instructions on how to stand up for your rights in court. 

Our lawyers are ready to provide doctors and other medical staff with necessary assistance on pro bono basis, and also encourage all lawyers and advocates to support our doctors.

1.  What additional benefits is medical personnel eligible for?

1.1.     Resolution No.415 of the Russian Government dated 02.04.2020 provides benefits for special working conditions and additional workload for medical workers providing medical care to individuals with COVID-19 and people at risk of infection (except in Moscow):

Period of payment: monthly within the timeframes established by constituent entities of the Russian Federation. For example, in St. Petersburg from March 16, 2020 to June 30, 2020. 

In Moscow, the matter of such benefits is covered by special Regulation No.517-PP of the Moscow Government dated 07.05.2020.

1.1.     Resolution No.484 of the Russian Government dated 12.04.2020 provides benefits to medical and other personnel directly working with individuals with COVID-19:

Period of payment: monthly for April, May and June in 2020.

1.2.     Decree No.313 of the Russian President “On providing additional insurance guaranties to particular categories of medical personnel” dated 06.05.2020 provides a lump sum insurance benefit:

Period of payment: lump sum benefit.

1.3.     Regional benefits 

In addition to the incentive and insurance benefits established at the federal level, some constituent entities of the Russian Federation decided to introduce their own “compensation” payments. For example, in St. Petersburg, medical workers who have been affected due to providing care to patients with COVID-19, as well as their family members, will receive a lump sum payment of 300,000 rubles (Resolution No.221of the St. Petersburg Government dated 20.04.2020).

2.  How should these additional benefits be calculated? 

The Resolution of the Russian Government prescribes additional benefits to medical personnel for “actual hours worked.” In other words, the amounts indicated in the tables above are the maximum possible, and the amount of benefit to a particular employee depends on the actual hours worked in the position which entitles to the benefit in the appropriate month.

Based on such a formulation, administrations of health care institutions apply at least two approaches, which allow paying the promised benefits in minimal amounts, namely: 

1. Calculation of time a doctor spent in contact with the infected in minutes/hours;
2. Calculation of benefits begins from the first day a doctor comes in contact with the infected.

The above calculation approaches are unlawful. Perhaps this is the rare case when citing the President is appropriate and useful. Literally today, he said:

“Listen to me, listen carefully: we agreed, and I said clearly and distinctly that this money must be paid for working with COVID-19 patients rather than for some hours, minutes and so on. Specific dates and specific figures for these payments were named. At the beginning of next week we will discuss it in detail, review the results by all the constituent entities of the Federation - I want to stress this: by all, without exception, as to how these instructions were carried out.”

Therefore, based on the objectives of these regulations, the benefits are to be paid in proportion to actual hours worked per month in the relevant position based on the calculation of the monthly norm of hours for one occupational rate, regardless of the date of the first contact and the total time of contacts with infected patients. In other words, the amount of benefits will be reduced only if an employee has not worked the entire norm of hours in a month, for example, due to being on vacation or sick leave.

However, Tatiana Semenova, Deputy Minister of Health Care of the Russian Federation, explained “if a medical worker works on a part-time basis, they receive half of the benefit, and if they work double shifts, they still receive one benefit.”

Additional benefits are to be paid together with wages in accordance with health care organization’s internal regulations. On May 11, during the Meeting on the sanitary and epidemiological situation, the Russian President instructed the heads of constituent entities to ensure that medical workers receive April’s benefits by May 15.

All the above federal and regional benefits shall be added up. Moreover, they are not subject to personal income tax.

3.  What actions should medical workers take if they have not received benefits or received them in a smaller amount?

If an employee has not received a benefit or received it incompletely, they have the right to file a complaint with the Prosecutor's Office and the labor inspectorate in order to protect their rights and/or a court with a claim for debt collection. We have prepared a draft claim (in Russian), which can be taken as a sample.

Prior to filing a claim, we recommend requesting the employer in writing to provide copies of documents related to work to prove your position in court. As evidence, in addition to the employment contract, certified copies of the following documents may be required: staff list, employment record book, payroll regulations, time sheet for the relevant month and local regulations related to the additional benefits under consideration (if any). Upon written request, an employer is obliged to issue copies of personnel records within 3 business days (Article 62 of the Russian Labor Code). If the employer ignores these requests, they may be requested in court. 

The claim may be filed with the district court at the location of an employer or at the place where an employee resides. At the same time, employees are exempted from paying state duty.

Should you still have questions about benefits to medical workers regarding COVID-2019, ask them online at the Russian Ministry of Healthcare hotline. In addition, similar phone hotlines are available in several regions.