Layoff in Russia: Employee Rights and Procedure

“Your position is being eliminated” — a phrase that makes many people sign the paperwork and leave without looking into the details. In reality, redundancy is one of the most tightly regulated procedures in the Russian Labor Code: the employer carries a long list of obligations, and breaking any one of them is grounds to challenge the dismissal. Here’s the full procedure for a layoff in Russia, step by step, and what employers most often skip.

Reduction in Numbers vs. Reduction in Staff — Is There a Difference

Technically these are two different things: a reduction in numbers (сокращение численности) means fewer positions of the same kind (5 managers become 3); a reduction in staff (сокращение штата) means the position itself is removed from the staffing table entirely. In practice, the procedure and the employee’s rights are identical either way — both run through Clause 2, Part 1, Article 81 of the Labor Code.

The Step-by-Step Procedure: What the Employer Must Do

1. Issue an order on the redundancy and approve a new staffing table.
2. Notify each affected employee personally, in writing, against signature, no less than 2 months before dismissal (Article 180) — if the employer is a legal entity. If the employer is a sole proprietor or another individual, the law sets no fixed notice period: it’s whatever the employment contract specifies (Article 307) — so in that case, check the contract itself.
3. Notify the union, if there is one — 2 months in advance, or 3 months for a mass layoff (Article 82).
4. Notify the employment service through the “Work in Russia” portal — 2 months in advance as a rule, 3 months for a mass layoff (Article 53 of Federal Law No. 565-FZ of December 12, 2023, “On Employment of the Population in the Russian Federation” — which replaced the old 1991 employment law). The default mass-layoff thresholds are 50+ people within 30 calendar days, 200+ within 60 days, 500+ within 90 days (Government Resolution No. 99 of February 5, 1993), though a sector or regional agreement with different thresholds takes priority if one exists.
5. Continuously offer every suitable vacancy — not just positions matching the employee’s qualifications, but also lower-level or lower-paid ones, within the same locality, and not just on the day of notice but throughout the entire two-month period and right up to the last day. This is one of the most common reasons courts strike down a redundancy dismissal — we have a separate article walking through a real court case on exactly this.
6. Determine who has priority to stay, if more than one employee holds an identical position that’s being cut (details below).
7. Issue the dismissal order and settle up, including severance pay.

Priority Right to Stay Employed

If only part of a group of identical positions is being cut, the employer can’t pick and choose who to let go arbitrarily. Article 179 of the Labor Code governs this.

The first test is productivity and qualifications. The employer has to compare the actual employees holding identical positions — performance record, education, experience, disciplinary history (or the absence of it). Courts require this comparison to be documented, not eyeballed.

Where productivity and qualifications are equal, priority goes to specific categories set out by law:

• employees with two or more dependents;
• employees who are the only wage-earner in their family;
• employees who suffered a workplace injury or occupational disease at this same employer;
• disabled veterans of WWII and combat operations;
• employees upgrading their qualifications on the employer’s instruction without a break from work;
• a parent of a child under 18 whose other parent is on military service or has been mobilized.

A new category — in effect since September 1, 2026. Under Federal Law No. 108-FZ of April 25, 2026, the list in Part 2, Article 179 gained another tie-breaking category: employees whose employment contract was suspended for military service (mobilization, contract service, or volunteering) and later resumed under Article 351.7 after their return. This, too, is a tie-breaker only — it grants priority solely when productivity and qualifications are equal to other affected employees, not a standalone shield against redundancy. This is a very recent change, worth paying close attention to if a redundancy is underway right now.

Important: the priority right only applies when comparing employees against each other in identical positions. If the position being cut is the only one of its kind, there’s no one to compare against — Article 179 simply doesn’t apply, and none of the priority categories can save that specific position.

Who Can’t Be Made Redundant Under Any Circumstances

Certain categories of employees are shielded from employer-initiated dismissal (except where the organization is being liquidated), regardless of productivity comparisons or priority rights:

• pregnant employees;
• women with children under 3;
• single mothers and other people raising a child without the mother — up to age 16 (up to 18 if the child is disabled). The age limit was raised from 14 to 16 by Federal Law No. 12-FZ of February 14, 2024, in effect since February 25, 2024 — older publications online often still cite the old 14-year threshold;
• a parent (or legal guardian) who is the sole wage-earner supporting a disabled child under 18, or the sole wage-earner supporting a child under 3 in a family raising three or more children under 14 — where the other parent isn’t employed (Part 4, Article 261);
• employees on sick leave or on vacation on the date of dismissal (Part 6, Article 81).

There’s a separate protection for employees under 18: dismissing a minor on the employer’s initiative, redundancy included, requires the consent of both the state labor inspectorate and the local commission for minors’ affairs (Article 269) — liquidation of the organization is the only exception.

We have separate, detailed articles on pregnant employees and pre-retirement employees — if that’s your situation, the dismissal may already be unlawful on that basis alone, without even getting into priority-right analysis.

What Payments Are Due on Redundancy

Under Article 178:

There’s an extra condition for the third-month payment: you must register with the employment service within 14 business days of dismissal — and you’ll have to do that before you even know whether you’ll need this payment at all, which is exactly why it’s worth registering right after dismissal rather than waiting to see how the second month goes.

For the Far North and areas with equivalent status, these periods are extended — up to 3 months automatically, and up to 6 months by decision of the employment service in exceptional cases.

Common Employer Mistakes

• Giving less than two months’ notice, or giving it verbally without a signature.
• Offering vacancies only on the last day, even though new openings appeared throughout the notice period.
• Skipping the Article 179 comparison when several identical positions are being cut — just dismissing whoever the employer prefers.
• Ignoring priority categories when productivity and qualifications are equal.
• Not notifying the employment service, or doing so only as a formality, without listing actual positions and dates.
• Using redundancy as cover for a different kind of dismissal — for example, dismissing “by redundancy” instead of on disciplinary grounds, to avoid having to prove the employee’s fault.

What to Do If You Think the Redundancy Was Unlawful

1. Request a copy of the redundancy order, the staffing table before and after, and the list of vacancies you were offered.
2. Check whether you were actually compared against other employees in the same position, and whether a priority category that applies to you was taken into account.
3. Document what vacancies genuinely existed at the company during the notice period (certificates, job postings, screenshots of the company’s own careers page).
4. Remember the deadline — you have 1 month from the day you received the dismissal order or your employment record book to file a reinstatement claim in court (Article 392).

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a pregnant employee be made redundant? No, except where the organization is being liquidated entirely. This rule applies regardless of priority-right comparisons under Article 179.

Is the employer required to offer vacancies at a branch in another city? No, only within the same locality, unless a collective agreement or employment contract expressly says otherwise.

What if my position is the only one of its kind being eliminated — what am I entitled to? The priority right under Article 179 doesn’t apply, since there’s no one to compare you against. But the notice-period, vacancy-offering, and severance-pay obligations still stand.

Can I get the third-month payment if I never registered with the employment service? No. Applying to the employment service within 14 business days of dismissal is a mandatory condition for that payment. Without registration, the third month isn’t paid.

Is the new priority category for returning service members already in effect? Yes, the change to Part 2, Article 179 took effect on September 1, 2026, and applies to redundancies carried out after that date.

Read Also

• Firing an Employee in Russia: Legal Options — a full overview of the employer’s options, from mutual agreement to redundancy
• Redundancy: Vacancies Must Be Offered Throughout Notice — a real court case on exactly when the duty to offer vacancies kicks in
• Downtime During Redundancy in Russia — can an employer avoid paying full wages during the two-month notice period
• Wrongful Dismissal in Russia: How to Challenge It — the general playbook for any grounds: deadlines, where to file, and what you can recover

Facing a redundancy and not sure the procedure was followed correctly? We’ll review the order, the staffing table, the list of vacancies, and whether the priority right was applied correctly. Reach out — we’ll look into your situation.