The draft law On Amending Article 21 of the federal law On Social Security for Invalids in the Russian Federation was submitted by the Sakhalin Region legislature.

The Russian Government has reviewed the submitted draft federal law hereinafter referred to as the draft law.

The draft law proposes an appendix to Article 21 of the federal law On Social Security for Invalids in the Russian Federation with a new Part5 which presupposes that the number of jobs for invalids to be hired within the allocated quota should be calculated by reducing the average staff count by the number of the staff employed on heavy duty jobs, working under hazardous and/or other special conditions that require that an employee must meet the relevant qualification requirements and have no health indications counter to qualifying for the job.

Currently Article 21 of the aforesaid federal law states that a constituent entity of the Russian Federation will establish a differentiated quota for organisations between 2 and 4 percent for hiring invalids relative to the average staff count.

The mechanism for calculating a quota for hiring invalids as proposed by the draft law as a percentage of the average staff count of employees who are not involved in heavy physical labour and/or labour with hazardous and/or other special conditions might reduce the number of jobs meant for invalids in an organisation.

Also, the Labour Code of the Russian Federation and the Federal Law on Social Security for Invalids in the Russian Federation allow invalids to take jobs with heavy, hazardous and/or dangerous conditions provided they have no medical indications counter to performing the required tasks.

The Russian Government earlier expressed its stance on a similar legislative proposal by the Leningrad Region legislature and sent to the State Duma a negative official review taken 28 December 2012, No 7335p-P12). That stance should be taken into account for further elaboration of the draft law.