Flexible work schedule: sample employment contract with free or sliding hours, as well as an explanation of the features of using a floating regime

Definition

According to Article 102 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, a flexible work schedule is an agreement between the employer and the worker on the beginning and end of the working day. At the same time, the law states that the employer and employee can vary working hours by mutual desire and agreement.

We talk in more detail about how the work schedule and hours are reflected in the employment contract here.

Flexible schedule is divided into several types:

Work in shifts . The schedule is widely known to every person. This is how police officers, medical personnel, etc. work.
Free mode . This option is suitable for artists, journalists and writers. Creative activity is difficult to measure in a standard way.
Sliding mode . In this schedule, working hours are standard. A person works as much as his colleagues work. The only difference is that the opening hours are “floating”. For example, an employee may come to work not at 10:00, but at 8:00, and, accordingly, leave two hours earlier.

Irregular working hours are regulated by Article 101 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

What does flexible work schedule mean?

Any work is much more effective when work time is organized wisely, in accordance with the needs of employees and employers, while not contradicting current laws. To ensure such an organization, there is a labor organization regime based on flexible working hours (GW).

What are the features of such a special schedule?
On whose initiative is it being introduced? How is labor accounted for?
Is the employee’s desire to transfer him to such a schedule sufficient, and will the employer’s refusals be lawful?

Law and concept

Flexible, sliding, free, GDV mode - all these epithets belong to the schedule that most employees dream of, because it gives them the right to some extent to participate in planning the time spent at work.

When establishing a flexible work schedule, the employee has the opportunity, by agreement with the employer, to independently regulate one or more positions in the organization of the labor process:

the beginning of the working day;
its completion;
the number of hours actually worked during a working day.

In this case, the employee does not have the right to change the total number of working hours established by the staffing table for his position for a particular period.

NOTE! There are many opinions that mistakenly consider a flexible schedule to be an organization of work in which employees themselves manage the time allotted for each work task. It is illegal to build a schedule according to the principle “I work when I think it’s necessary, and not when my boss wants.” The labor legislation of the Russian Federation is based on recording working hours, and no special schedules or conditions can cancel the basic provision on the established number of working hours during the reporting period.

The modern legal basis for the sliding schedule regime is Art. 102 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, which prescribes the features of regulating labor relations with a flexible schedule. Along with the Labor Code, in those parts that do not contradict it, the achievements of Soviet lawmaking in this area are used:

Resolution of the State Labor Committee of the USSR and the Secretariat of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions No. 162/12-55 dated May 30, 1985 “Recommendations for the application of flexible working time regimes in enterprises, institutions and organizations”;
Resolution of the State Committee for Labor and the Secretariat of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions No. 170 / 10-101 dated 06/06/1984 “Regulations on the procedure and conditions for the application of a sliding (flexible) work schedule for women with children.”

The head and tail of flexible scheduling

Like a snake, a sliding graph consists of a fixed part (the “head”) and a flexible part (the moving “tail”). Let's look at the elements of a flexible schedule that belong to these parts.

Fixed time is the hours that an employee is required to spend at his workplace. They can be established jointly with the employer, or he has the right to assign them declaratively for each department.
Variable time is those hours that an employee can “move” at his discretion: the time when he starts work and the hour he stops.
Lunch and rest breaks are not included in working hours, but can be part of a fixed time (that is, set by the employer) or flexible (used by the employee when he sees fit).
Accounting period type - that is, its duration. Depending on which accounting method is chosen by the employer, the employee at the GDV must work the number of hours established by law during:
weeks (excluding weekends);
months (excluding weekends and holidays);
decades;
quarter.

IMPORTANT! There are other ways to track work time on a rotating schedule. There are two main requirements for them: firstly, the employer must recognize their expediency and effectiveness, and secondly, recording working hours is strictly mandatory, and control over it is entrusted to the employer.

Will of the employee and employer

Who is the initiator of the introduction of the GDV regime, and who ultimately has the final say? The question is not as simple as it might seem. The employee’s desire to introduce such a regime is not always enough, just as the employer does not always have the right to refuse such a request.

A free schedule, in accordance with Article 102 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, is an agreement between the employee and the employer. That is, the initiative can belong to any side, the main thing is that the other side does not object to it. This working regime is documented by an additional labor agreement to the employment contract.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION! Neither party can force the other to work on a staggered schedule unless they mutually agree on this issue.

When one side doesn’t want to, but needs to

If an employee has expressed a desire to work on a staggered schedule, but the employer does not see this as advisable and refuses, this will be legal, since no agreement has been reached. The employer has the right to introduce the GDV regime, but not the obligation.
There is one situation provided for by law in which an employee’s request to introduce a flexible working time regime cannot be ignored by the employer. This is the presence of an employee in the care of a minor child (up to the age of 14 years) or a disabled child. The mother or father of such a child has the right to establish, at their request, a part-time working day or a part-time working week, and their legal request cannot be refused.

Who is eligible for a flexible schedule?

In some cases, the advantages of a flexible schedule are obvious due to objective circumstances: not all work functions can be performed during standard working hours. But even if a free schedule is not an objective necessity, the employer may consider that its establishment will increase labor efficiency: in this case, the law does not prohibit its introduction.

Rotating schedule professions

There are professions that are unstable due to their characteristics, so for them the most rational way to organize work time would be a flexible schedule. Order of the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Communications and Information No. 112 dated September 8, 2003 (in the appendix to it) approved a list of employees for whom flexible working hours are inevitable due to the specifics of their work functions. These include:

liquidators of accidents that occurred with communications equipment;
workers of radio and television communication centers;
operators, etc.

Children of “flexible” parents

As stated above, in order for a parent of a minor child to be able to successfully combine work with parenting, the employer must provide him with the opportunity to sometimes schedule the beginning and end of the working day, as well as its duration. In this case, not only the interests of the parents, but also the efficiency of production should be taken into account.

With a reasonable approach, it is always possible to reach a mutually beneficial compromise in which the quality of work will not suffer and labor standards will be observed in terms of the total number of hours worked. On the other hand, the work efficiency of the mother or father will increase, since they will work calmer and more confidently, the number of lateness and premature departures, as well as loss of time due to possible absences, will decrease.

Flexible or loose?

Sometimes the concepts of “flexible” and “free schedule” are not considered identical, understanding “free” mode when accounting is carried out not by the number of hours worked, but by the fact of performing a labor function.

In some professions, a person works much more efficiently if he is not “attached” to his workplace, but solves his task at a time convenient for himself, spending as many hours on it as necessary. Examples include the work of a designer, advertising agent, programmer, website moderator, etc.

Can an employer legitimize their free schedule by only accepting work, leaving them to decide on their own issues of labor organization, or will they only have to cooperate with freelancers? Today this issue is becoming more and more relevant, which means that it will be necessary to find a legislative solution to it.

Currently, the Labor Code, based on a man-hour recording system, does not provide such an official opportunity. The employer is responsible for recording the working time actually worked by each employee and adequately recording it (paragraph 4 of Article 92 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

For what positions is it suitable?

An employment contract with a sliding schedule applies to almost all positions. This especially applies to office positions, such as secretary, bank specialist, manager. If such a schedule is convenient for the employer and employee, then a sliding schedule can be organized for absolutely any position. Especially if the employee studies or works part-time.

Shift schedules have always been popular. The presidents of large industries and various factories wanted production not to stop, and the enterprise to function full time. But the desire of the management contradicted the current legislation, since working without days off and lunch is strictly prohibited. In this regard, a system of shift work schedules was developed (read about how such a schedule is displayed in employment contracts here). The flexible schedule system is used in many areas of activity .

A free schedule, as mentioned above, is most suitable for creative people (designers, artists, poets, etc.).

Peculiarities

Free

the difficulty of coordinating the work process and interaction between colleagues, since they can work at different times;
there is a possibility that the position will be transferred to the part-time category, and this, in turn, may affect wages;
there is a possibility of deterioration in the quality of the labor process due to violation of discipline in the team;
the emergence of conflicts, the complication of relationships between employees.

How is sliding time calculated?

For the proper functioning of the company's activities, it is necessary to control and maintain records of working hours.

Let's look at three types of sliding time accounting:

Daily accounting. In this case, a certain number of hours is established, which in any case must be worked by workers.
If it is not possible to provide control in one day, a weekly standard of hours is established.
If it is not possible to control the situation with the two above types, then a monthly form for recording working hours is used.

The employer always organizes working hours and is responsible for this. These responsibilities are the responsibility of HR specialists.

For registration and accounting, the unified form T-13 is used.

Cases when this mode cannot be used

For enterprises with special working conditions, a flexible schedule is not suitable (we talked about what working conditions exist and how they are reflected in the employment contract in a separate article). Especially if the organization has weak labor discipline.

In addition, in the service sector and public services, the introduction of a flexible schedule is also not possible. Small private firms have much more opportunities in this regard.

On our website there are other expert publications that talk about what types of work can be reflected in an employment contract, as well as how to correctly indicate the official salary, hourly or piece-rate payment in the agreement.

Elements of “floating” working time

These include:

Lunch break . According to Article 108 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, every worker has the right to eat and rest. Lunch time should not be less than 30 minutes.
Variable time . This is the period of time that the employee can independently choose (determining the beginning and end of the working day).
Fixed working hours . At this time, the employee must always be at his workplace in the organization.

These elements can be changed and supplemented.

How to apply correctly?

In order to correctly reflect the data in the employment contract, it is necessary to record the phrase “Flexible work schedule” in the paragraph “Conditions and nature of work”. And then supplement this section with the necessary paragraphs and subparagraphs.

Changes to the employment contract are made after agreement by both parties. Such a procedure is not feasible unilaterally.

What could the wording be?

The section wording might look something like this:

Employee Smirnov I.G. a six-day work week is established. The employee chooses the days independently.
Employee Mironova O.I. a flexible schedule of 30 hours per week is established.
The lunch break for employees is from 12:30 to 13:00.
A monthly type of accounting period is assigned.

Other sections of the employment contract with a flexible schedule do not differ from those with a regular working day. The following information is required :

rights and obligations of the parties;
place of work;
guarantees that a worker is entitled to according to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation;
terms of vacations;
details of the employer and the employer.

We provide more details about the conditions and content of employment contracts, as well as what clauses should be displayed in them, in a special material.

The concept of flexible work hours in an employment contract

For some, a flexible schedule is convenient; for others, it is, on the contrary, an ineffective way to organize the work process.

Although it would be Frederick Taylor's nightmare, flexible working is very common in today's job market.

Dear readers! Our articles talk about typical ways to resolve legal issues, but each case is unique.

If you want to find out how to solve your particular problem, please use the online consultant form on the right or call. It's fast and free!

The practical side is touched upon - how to correctly draw up a contract, the rights and obligations of the parties, and what you should especially pay attention to when drawing up.

Concept

Article 102 of the Labor Code defines a flexible schedule. It is defined as a mutual agreement between the parties about the beginning, end and duration of the working day.

The Code gives maximum freedom in wording ; employer and employee can vary working hours at will. The main condition is mutual agreement.

In HR practice, there are three types of flexible scheduling:

Sliding work schedule . In the employment contract, an employee working on such a schedule has standard working hours. He works the same hours as his colleagues. The difference here is the variable opening hours. Example: a person may arrive two hours earlier than the usual start time, but also leave two hours earlier.
Free . It would be a particularly good solution for musicians, artists, and journalists. Some activities are extremely difficult to regulate and measure in standard ways.
Shift . The concept of “shift schedule” is a type of organization of working time familiar to everyone. Example: night shifts in hospitals.

Suitable positions

Although the last paragraph briefly mentioned positions for which flexible work arrangements are generally suitable, for a better understanding, below is an expanded list of examples and their detailed descriptions.

An employment contract with a sliding work schedule, extended to all regular positions, incl. office.

Marketers, secretaries, managers.

The main question will be the feasibility of introducing such a schedule.

If it suits the employee and the employer, then a sliding schedule can be organized for almost any position . It will be especially useful for employees who have other important matters besides work.

Namely: study, part-time work elsewhere.

Shifts : fundamentally there is nothing new. Shifts were introduced at the dawn of capitalism, when factory owners wanted production to work around the clock and constantly produce products, but their desire rested on the physiological characteristics of a person.

That's why such a system was invented. It is widely used in factories , emergency services ( hospitals, rescue services ), as well as in the private sector (convenience stores).

Free schedule : on the one hand, we have very poorly regulated by standard methods - creative activity. On the other hand, there is the need to conclude a formal relationship between the employee and the company.

An employment contract with a flexible work schedule is the best way out of this difficult situation. Designers, artists, musicians, writers, trainers , this type of working relationship is very suitable for them.

Options

Despite the greater degree of freedom with a flexible schedule, control and recording of working time is required.

There are three main types :

Daily - a specific number of working hours is established, they must be worked within one day.
Weekly - if it is not possible to ensure time control within one day, then the standard hours for one week are established.
Monthly - it is preferred if it is impossible to control working time using the previous two methods.

The accounting period in some cases can be increased, for example, to “quarterly” reporting.

The responsible party for organizing working time, basic principles and methods of accounting is the employer.

The HR department is responsible for recording working hours.

To fill out, use the standard “T-13” form; this is a standard working time sheet.

When is it not suitable?

In addition, often in the public sector. service, the introduction of a flexible schedule is not possible due to bureaucratic “sluggishness”. Private firms have more opportunities in this regard.

Components of a contract

The constituent elements are:

fixed time - the time when an employee is required to be present at the enterprise;
variable time - a period of time when the employee has the right to determine the beginning and end of the working day;
food break - Article 108 of the Labor Code establishes the employee’s right to a break, food and rest. Minimum - half an hour break.

Elements can be supplemented with clarifications and subparagraphs.

Registration of a flexible schedule in an employment contract

In order to draw up an employment contract, in the section “Conditions and nature of work” you need to indicate “Flexible working hours” and supplement the section with clauses regulating the main elements of the schedule.

A change to an existing contract, for example, a transfer to a “Floating work schedule”, must be agreed upon by both parties . This is impossible unilaterally.

Examples of wording and other items

Sample wording for this section might look like this:

employee “X” is given a “flexible working time regime” with a total amount of time of 30 hours per week ;
for employee “X” a six-day work week , the days are determined by the employee himself;
the break is scheduled between 12.00 and 12.30 ;
a “weekly” type of accounting period is established .

The photo shows a sample employment contract with a flexible work schedule:

Responsibility of employer and employee

The liability of the parties is governed by the general provisions of the Labor Code. By violating an employee’s right to rest and break, the employer risks being fined . The fifth section of the Labor Code covers this issue in detail.

If the employee does not work conscientiously, he also runs a risk. Abuse of flexible scheduling that disrupts work flow may result in termination of the contract.

Markers of abuse include: violation of fixed time, shortcomings, failure to complete a given amount of work .

Conclusion

There is nothing fundamentally new in this type of work process organization.

When drawing up a contract, you should rely on the Labor Code .

The main article to refer to is TC 102.

It gives greater freedom in developing the optimal work structure.

The main point in it is the agreement of the parties; other parameters may vary. The rest regime and breaks are regulated by the fifth section of the Code.

When concluding a contract, it should be indicated that this particular type of organization of working time has been chosen. It is necessary to indicate such conditions as fixed time , reporting mode, breaks.

Didn't find the answer to your question? Find out how to solve exactly your problem - call right now:

+7 (Moscow) +7 (St. Petersburg)