Recently, concurrently with the employment agreement term, the term "employment contract" occurs. What kind of form is it for execution of the employment agreement?

There is no legal definition for the term "employment contract" in the Russian legislation, therefore there is so far no special legal regime for this.

The Labor Code views the terms "employment agreement" and "contract" as equal notions, meaning a private employment agreement where the norms of labor law are equally applicable. Concurrently, in practice, the contract form is really considered as a special employment agreement for separate categories of employees, which is used when executing employment relations, mainly in commercial structures. Firstly, an employment agreement (contract) for a definite term is applicable to labor relations, which cannot be established for an indefinite period (temporary job). Secondly, the contractual form takes place when the job reflects the interest of the employee himself with the consideration of the conditions of his performance - a creative nature of the author's performance. And finally, thirdly, the conclusion of a contract may be directly prescribed by law. Thus, pursuant to a direct reference of the law the contract form is prescribed when hiring the principal of the joint-stock company. This allows the establishment of more strict conditions for his performance, including additional grounds for a dismissal of this category of the employed, if a certain performance is not reached.

The major feature of the contract form in this instance is that in addition to a definite term of the contract there are included additional conditions for the performance and liability of the principal: ensuring profitable operation of the commercial company, improvement of the performance efficiency and deriving profit, i.e. specific result orientated figures, which completely depend on the administrative and managerial skills of the principal.

Thus, the contract form is possible provided that the requirements stipulated by law are met, as unjustified expansion of the Reference for application of the contract form may lead to restriction of the rights of the employed. For instance, should the employment agreement (contract) for a definite term be concluded with the employee in violation of the law and upon expiry hereof he was dismissed, the court, adjudicating violation of clause 2 Article 17 of the Labor Code of the RF will reinstate the employee in his employment with effect for the administration thereupon.