Russia wants to protect the rights of childless women when hiring

Guarantee of the constitutional right to women’s work

The State Duma has proposed prohibiting employers from refusing to employ young women without children. This initiative was put forward by deputies from the LDPR party.

According to the explanatory note to the bill, the main objective of the document is to increase guarantees of the constitutional right to work for young women.

At the same time, current labour legislation already provides guarantees of equal opportunities for employment of applicants of either gender. In particular, Article 64 of the Labour Code prohibits refusing to sign an employment contract with women for reasons related to pregnancy or having children.

“However, in practice, some employers refuse to employ young women who do not have children, fearing subsequent complications associated with potential long-term leave and payments for pregnancy, childbirth and child care. In order to eliminate such a ‘literal’ interpretation by employers of the norm of Part 3 of Article 64 of the Labour Code of the Russian Federation, the bill proposes to establish a ban on employers refusing to sign an employment contract with women for reasons related to the absence of children,” the document notes.

In addition, the law assumes the impossibility of recalling women from maternity leave until the child reaches the age of three. The deputies also proposed raising the age of children whose mothers, in the event of their inability to perform their previous job, have the right to be transferred to another job while maintaining their average salary at their previous job from one and a half to three years.

“Prejudice is counterproductive”

As Realnoe Vremya was told by the hh.ru job hunting service, women do indeed continue to face problems when finding a job. However, over time, the trend is fading.

“We notice that women with children, mothers on maternity leave, and young girls are having difficulty finding a job. Employers have a certain fear that such women will give birth to a child and go on long maternity leave. Also, representatives of the older generation and people with disabilities experience certain difficulties. Of course, the lion's share of these fears of employers are nothing more than stereotypes,” the company's press service said.

The service representatives added that by the end of 2023, female residents of Tatarstan had received about 2.5 million invitations, which is 1 million more than men:

“In a situation of personnel shortage throughout Russia, any employers' prejudice towards applicants (gender, religious, age-related, this also includes childless women or women with small children) are counterproductive. Today, recruitment of employees is only possible based on skills, regardless of age and the presence or absence of children.”

“If you want, you can still refuse the position”

Employers do not want to hire women without children, since they can give birth and go on maternity leave. And it is difficult to find new employees for a temporarily vacated position, since candidates understand that they will be asked to leave at any time.

“The bill protects women who are new to the job. In any case, priority in employment is given to men because women take a maternity leave and then a sick leave with children. In this way, the authorities are trying to equalise rights,” lawyer Bulat Sakhabiyev told Realnoe Vremya.

According to him, employers usually refuse female applicants without directly referring to childlessness and age, “if one wants, one can still find a reason for refusal.”

“At the same time, one way or another, the law will protect female candidates, mainly after student age. Somehow, this will benefit them. They want to protect such candidates, give them some guarantees. However, I do not know how exactly this law is planned to be implemented,” he emphasised.

In practice, Sakhabiyev has not had such cases. However, he pointed out that, for example, in law enforcement agencies, preference is given to male candidates. “Most likely, this law is more aimed at protecting women who are already employed. They want a ban to terminate contracts with female employees who have children under three years of age. Apparently, it is intended to complicate the procedure for terminating employment until the child turns 3 years old,” the interlocutor added.

The lawyer is sure that the bill will not affect the selection of new employees: “I think that the circumstances will not change much when hiring. Perhaps, already employed women with children will be more protected. When hiring, I think the picture will not change, because it is the employer’s right to hire this or that person for a certain position at their own discretion.”