Age discrimination in labour relations is explicitly prohibited by the Russian Labour Code.

Certain age-based variations in employment conditions, limitations, preferences, etc are established by the Labour Code or other federal laws in view of the job requirements and workplace conditions.

Violation of the age limitations can be certified as disciplinary, administrative or criminal offence.

Disciplinary liability implies the sanctions (warning, dismissal) the company can use against its employee (e.g. HR manager who disregarded the age limitations when managing the personnel). The company can also call its employee who is liable for violation of the legal requirements to material liability, e.g. in order to cover the administrative fines imposed on the company as a result of the employee’s faulty actions (as a rule its amount shall not exceed the average monthly salary of the employee).

Administrative liability for non-compliance with the age regulations of the Russian employment law can apply both to the company’s official and to the company itself as a legal entity. Claims against administrative offences can be brought in a district court (which is court of general jurisdiction) or to the Federal Labour Inspection. The latter can also detect the violations in the course of inspection performed at its own initiative or at the request of an employee/employer.

The sanctions for violation of the labour law (which prohibits age discrimination) are administrative fines for the company officials (plus possible disqualification for repeated similar offence), administrative fines for the company itself or suspension of its operations for up to 90 days.

Discrimination, that is, violation of rights and freedoms of an individial, is a ground for criminal liability. Though the Criminal Code does not expressly names the discrimination for age grounds theoretically such discrimination could also qualify as criminal offence. The sanction varies from a fine to imprisonment of up to 5 years. The claims of criminal offence are filed at the local police office and are further considered by the district court. It should be noted that there is no available court practice on application of the criminal liability for discrimination for grounds of age.

The employee can also claim damage caused to him/her (including moral damage) from the company. The amount of such damage is calculated depending on the case.

In the sphere of labour relations the number of discrimination claims is rather small, compared to e.g. claims against unfair dismissal for other grounds. However within this group age discrimination claims are noticeable, probably this is due to the fact that some of them are worded as debating compliance of federal laws (which establish e.g. a compulsory retirement age for a specific profession) with the Russian Constitution; such disputes are resolved by the Constitutional Court of Russia and the decisions make part of the Russian legislation (precedents of other courts are formally not recognized as law).

To our opinion, most common are claims filed by state civil servants, military men, educational workers at state or municipal institutions, etc for whom the federal laws establish the age of compulsory retirement and who object to retirement for such ground as non-constitutional.

Private companies, in order to avoid possible age discriminations disputes, should ensure that:

• no job refusal is  based on age reasons (unless the job is prohibited by law to a certain age group), questions at the interview should not give rise to the inference that age discrimination is taking place;
• employees of specific age groups are not engaged in jobs that are prohibited to them by law;
• employees under 18 are given all the statutory guarantees they are entitled to;

the employer does not misuse its right to sign fixed-term employment contracts with individuals who have reached the retirement age (under the Russian law it is the common case to have employment contracts signed for an indefinite period of time, while one of the exceptions is signing it for a fixed term if the new hire has reached the retirement age; still, signing several consequent fixed-term contracts for the same job can be disputed as unjustified, and as a result the contract can be certified as an indefinite one).

The general requirement of the Russian Labour Code is that employment can start once the individual is 16 y.o. (exceptions possible e.g. for children of any age who perform at theatres, circuses, etc).

Specific rules apply for employees under 18 y.o.. Again, certain jobs are prohibited to this age group, e.g. includes work in harmful or hazardous conditions, and work that might impair their health or moral development (work at casinos, night clubs, production of alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, etc). Every employee under 18 y.o. should every year submit to medical examination. Employees under 18 y.o. are also given additional guarantees such as e.g. a larger holiday entitlement and fewer lawful grounds for dismissal.

The law defines a list of jobs prohibited to individuals who have reached the retirement age (mostly state civil servants, military men, etc).

The general retirement age in Russia is 60 for men and 55 for women. For certain jobs (e.g. those involving underground work, harmful environment, etc) the retirement age can be 5-10 years less (e.g. 55 for men and 50 for women completing certain jobs in the aviation sector). However, in the general case reaching the retirement age does not lead to the obligation to quit job. The individual may at his/her discretion continue working, and receive, apart from the remuneration, the state pension.

In the general case (the exceptions are state civil servants, rectors of state higher educational institutions, etc) the employer cannot force an employee to retire upon reaching a certain age or move to another position. However, when hiring a new employee of retirement age the employer can suggest signing a fixed-term employment contract and safely dismiss the employee once such contract expires.