Remote Employment Contract: Sample Document

An employment contract with a remote employee necessarily contains an indication of a mutual agreement on work outside organized workplaces by the employer. Today we will talk about the features of the contract, providing for remote work.

Remote Work Act

An employment contract can only be signed with a group of workers capable of doing work remotely. For example, through the Internet. The form of a remote employment contract necessarily requires a detailed description of the characteristics of an employee working outside the office:

A person performs functions outside an organized workplace by a tenant.
For work and interaction between the employer and the employee, the Internet is used.

An employment contract with a remote employee implies that he does not operate in a place organized and controlled by the employer. Labor legislation allows two options for labor:

Home, in which the place of activity of the employee is defined as the address of registration (residence).
Remote, when the employee has the right to determine the place of business.

The common between homework and distance work

At home and distant labor have common features:

Cooperation between the remote employee and the employer is based on a set of articles of the code of the Russian Federation, taking into account the peculiarities of remote work.
The employee is considered to be at the workplace, not being in the office of the employer.
The working hours of a remote employee are not controlled. He himself determines the periods of work and rest, based on his volume of work, which should enable him to comply with the labor standard established by the code.
Means of labor may belong to both the employee and the employer.
Features of the conclusion of an employment contract with remote workers suggest that it clearly spells out the interaction procedure for transferring tasks and obtaining results.
In the labor contract, you can enter special grounds for its termination.

Differences between types of remote work

There are a number of differences between the types of remote activity (home-based and distance):

A homeworker is tied to a place of residence as the place where work is done. The remote employee can work in a space convenient for him.
A homeworker is allowed to use other people's labor. An employee working remotely performs work individually.
The homeworker creates material objects. Remote activities create intelligent products.
Work at home involves direct interaction with the employer. The remote employee interacts via telephone and the Internet.

Remote work part-time

The labor legislation of the Russian Federation allows working remotely for part-time workers. When concluding a remote part-time employment contract, it is worth remembering the rules for working part-time:

Work time is calculated as half the duration of a regular working day, and the amount of work, respectively, will be half that of a simple worker.
Vacation is granted at the main place of work and part-time work at the same time.
Termination of the remote employment contract is possible with a notice of this in two weeks.
Concurrent activities do not provide social guarantees for employees working in the Far North, or for people who combine studies with work.

A sample of a remote employment contract in combination is the same as a sample of a simple contract. You can find it below.

It includes: the title of the document, the date of signing, general provisions, the subject of the employment contract. A legally important clause on the obligations of the parties to the legal relationship (employee and employer) is necessarily included in the contract for remote work.

An employment contract, as a rule, necessarily prescribes the regime of working hours, because the employer does not directly control the work of his remote subordinate employee during the course of his work.

The contract indicates the legal and material liability of the parties to legal relations to each other. Sometimes an employee’s reimbursement of expenses (telephone, Internet, mail services) is prescribed in the contract. The conditions of social insurance and employee guarantees are also indicated in the document.

Special conditions in the contract inherent to remote work (exchange of documents by e-mail, non-entry of labor records in the work book by agreement of the parties to the contract) may be taken into account.

At the end of the document, the addresses (places of registration), details (PSRN, TIN) and contact details of the parties to the legal relationship are prescribed. The contract is signed by both parties in duplicate for the employee and employer.

Features of paperwork

Admitting an employee to work remotely does not exempt the employer from exchanging documents in order to:

sending employee personal data;
providing the employee with the original documents for applying for a job and payroll calculations (for example, comparing the employee’s signature in the passport and in the sample employment contract);
familiarization of the employee with the documents of the company.

The date of admission, the probationary period are drawn up as in the usual model of the employment contract. The distant employee in the column place of work indicates his address.

The employee must send a letter with a notification through the Russian Post all documents requiring the provision in the original form. The following exchange options are possible:

via email;
using documents signed by electronic signature.

Electronic interaction

Through the Internet there is a preliminary coordination of the features of the remote employment contract. The approved version of the contract is signed in two versions in paper form and sent by the employer to the employee within three days by a letter with a notification. It is possible that the employee receives the contract form electronically, writes his personal data in it, signs it with a qualified electronic signature and sends it back to the employer.

Documents required for employment can be sent to the employer electronically. If this is not enough, then send notarized papers by mail. It is possible that the employer may require the presence of the employee in person at the time of signing and terminating the contract. In this case, the employee brings all the required documents with him.

In relation to two documents for remote workers, a non-standard procedure for execution is established:

SNILS draws up a remote employee personally.
An entry in a personal book may not be made out by agreement of the parties. If an employee requires the entry of activity records, he sends his employer his personal book by Russian Post by registered mail. The basis for the confirmation of experience will be a contract.

Through the Internet, an employee can familiarize himself with all the internal regulatory acts of the company that he needs to directly fulfill the tasks assigned to him. Handwritten signature on familiarization can be replaced by a qualified electronic. In the same labor regime, in compliance with the deadlines established by law, the company transfers to the employee documents related to his direct activities: an agreement to his labor contract, a notice of annual paid leave, notice of a significant change in the terms of his labor contract, order.

How to register remote work in the labor contract regarding remote viewing of documents? You can write this in a separate paragraph or include in the paragraph on general provisions.

Differences between the remote contract and the usual

An employment contract with a remote employee is required. However, the conditions and possibilities for implementing remote work are stipulated by the existence of differences between such a document and a contract with an ordinary employee.

In the contract with working remotely:

Mandatory indication of the remote nature of the work. As the place of conclusion of the contract indicate the location of the office of the employer.
Presence of the condition for the absence of an entry in the book.
Indication of a specific operating mode.
Inclusion of the condition on the need to issue an electronic signature to the employee.
Indication of the procedure for the exchange of requirements for work and its result.
Inclusion of additional responsibilities of the employer.
Reflection of the conditions of dismissal, supplementing the list of reasons contained in the legislation, if there is a decision on their inclusion in the text of the document.

A fixed-term distance contract is concluded, like a regular labor contract, with the date or condition of termination.

Rights and obligations of a remote employee

The rights and obligations of the parties to a contract with a remote employee do not fundamentally differ from the clauses of a regular labor contract. A distance contract usually prescribes several additional points:

On the obligation of the employee to use software and data protection tools of a technical nature and other means in their work. The need for this is the desire of the employer to keep a trade secret containing information about any scientific achievement.
If the employer needs to control the remote employee, then it is necessary to fix the time for the employee to contact him using the available means of communication (phone, Internet).
On the obligations of the employee to provide reporting data in accordance with the established procedure and deadlines for the submission of reports on labor activity. The more specific the conditions are, the easier it is to ask an employee for them and the less disputes will arise in the future.

Since the relationship with the employer, the formation of tasks and goals, the transfer of the product of the activity or reporting forms in many cases goes through a virtual network, it is worthwhile to specify in detail the format of communication with the employer and the timing and format of how the other party will confirm receipt of information in the labor contract for remote work . This can be a response message, SMS notification, phone call.

The obligations of the employer, except for the clauses on observance of the conditions for carrying out labor activities in our country, payment of earnings on time, contain in the distance contract the conditions for reimbursing the employee for the costs associated with the performance of labor duties (expenses for mobile communications and the Internet). It is worth paying attention to the obligations of the employer in the field of labor protection. In relation to the remote employee, the company should familiarize him with the rules of working with technological, software and employer tools.

The remote worker, as a rule, sets the working hours and rest time for himself. The employer may insist and demand that the employee devote at least a certain number of hours per working day to his professional activities.

Why is it necessary to so carefully and in detail prescribe the special clauses of the remote agreement, such as the mode of submitting reporting forms, the format of communication with the tenant? Violation of the terms of cooperation with the employee working remotely may become the basis for termination of employment. The labor legislation of our country allows prescribing special conditions for the dismissal of an employee on the initiative of the employer in the remote work contract: if the employee has twice submitted a report with a gross violation of the reporting deadlines, he does not contact the employer. This is a legitimate reason for dismissing a remote employee, if this is specified in the contract.

Conclusion of a remote employment contract

A person who has entered into a remote employment contract with a company that meets all the labor laws of our country is called a remote worker. The contract of such an employee, although almost one hundred percent similar to a regular labor contract, has a number of fundamental features. For example:

permission and terms of use in the relationship of the parties to electronic document management;
the requirement for a qualified electronic signature that can be used already when signing the labor contract itself;
permission by mutual agreement of the parties regarding the non-entry of the record of labor experience in the company in the employee’s personal workbook;
an indication of the place of work of the employee by the place of work;
compensation of expenses in the case of using hardware or software (own or leased) to carry out labor activities;
a requirement on the obligation of a remote worker to use special equipment to protect information that constitutes a trade secret;
time-limited format requirements for the provision of the necessary reporting forms;
operating mode of the remote employee, if necessary.

Inadequate fulfillment or non-fulfillment of these requirements may be grounds for further termination of the distance contract. For example, in case of late submission of reporting forms or submitting them in an inappropriate format, the dismissal of a remote employee may follow. The occurrence of these problems can be suppressed at the stage of careful study and preparation of the form of the future distance contract. It is necessary to spell out in the contract requirements for the timing, form and frequency of reporting, indicating the working hours of the immediate supervisor and the person in charge of him.

All other rights and obligations are exercised in accordance with the labor legislation of the country. The annual leave is granted to the employee in accordance with the legal conditions of employment in our country.

Remote contract termination

The general norms of labor legislation and the additional grounds enshrined in the distance contract are applied upon termination of the contract.

It should be remembered when drawing up a labor contract for remote work that the special conditions of dismissal:

should not worsen the position of the remote worker;
be discriminatory on the basis of sex, religion or any other grounds;
must be associated with the employee's labor duties;
have an unambiguous interpretation and documentary evidence.

The dismissal of an employee performing remote work is executed by the order of dismissal with an indication of the specific reason for termination of the employment contract.If an electronic document flow is established with the employee, then on the last day of work (the date of termination of the contract), the employer sends him a copy of the order by e-mail and duplicates sending by Russian Post by letter.

Remote work abroad

The decision to connect your life with remote work is not easy. It is required to weigh all the pros and cons, but the most important thing is to find out for yourself what you want to get from such work and whether you are able to work remotely. Work at a distance in a foreign company resembles the most ordinary workdays in your city: the same working regime and guaranteed income, but there are important differences. The employer will not keep track of how much time you spend at the workplace, how often you take breaks and how long you take rest from work. Remote activities require a high level of responsibility and self-organization.

The most popular employers in the field of remote work are today programmers, mobile application developers, SEO and SMM experts, designers. And even they, in order to interest foreign employers, must have knowledge and experience above the average level of knowledge of their colleagues in these areas.

It is important to be able to present yourself, correctly draw up your resume. It must be readable. It must be divided into four points:

list the awards, distinctions received by you at specialized competitions (show real achievements);
describe work experience (in detail, clearly);
state your interests and hobbies (areas of personal development);
mention the education received (much more important and obvious for the employer looking for a remote employee is professional knowledge and real practical experience).

In conclusion, we note once again that one should not refuse the remote form of employment. A distant employee is the employer's dream subject to the conscientious, efficient performance of his functions, as he seriously saves the employer's money on the equipment of an additional workplace, and the costs of creating working conditions. The fruitful and comfortable interaction between the employer and the employee depends on how the working conditions are detailed in the labor contract.