Criminal and legal aspects of violation of labour rights in modern Russian and foreign legislation

Criminal liability in the sphere of labour relations is an effective tool for influencing offenders and restoring justice, protecting labour and other human and civil rights, ensuring labour safety and combating corruption. However, effective real protection of labour rights of citizens is possible only in the presence of properly structured criminal law, including measures of liability of legal entities. In Russia, as a country in transition, labour rights are protected by the judiciary, executive authorities, prosecutor's offices, trade unions and state labour inspectorates. The effectiveness of activities in the area of labour safety and labour protection has not changed significantly over the past decade. At the same time, due to the trend of increasing role of legal entities in the sphere of labour relations, FATF recommendations, expansion of corporate liability in foreign legislation, and other factors, in the medium term, the objectively overdue question of establishing criminal liability for legal entities will again arise before the legislator with sufficient urgency. The purpose of the work is to study the peculiarities of criminal liability for violation of labour rights, as well as the problems of liability of legal entities on the basis of comparative legal analysis of the world practice of introduction of this type of legal liability to substantiate the proposal on the expediency of its introduction in Russia in the medium term, including the sphere of regulation of labour relations, and the development of proposals for amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. This article is devoted to the study of issues of criminal liability for violation of labour rights in modern Russian and foreign legislation. Both from the position of theory and practice, this problem remains insufficiently researched at the moment. The article presents the results of comparative legal research of criminal-legal prohibitions related to violation of labour rights of an individual in Russian and foreign legislation. Some provisions of the Criminal Codes of foreign countries are considered. Special attention is paid to the issues of social function of labour law, which, according to the authors, in the conditions of pandemic becomes especially important, providing protection of rights and interests of workers and other persons engaged in labour activity. Based on the results of the conducted scientific research, some proposals for the optimization of the national legal framework and law enforcement practice in the field of legal regulation of criminal liability for violation of labour rights are formulated. The specific sociological and comparative legal methods used by the authors make it possible to compare certain elements of the Russian legal system, historically formed under the influence of the Romano-Germanic system of law, with the legal approaches developed in developed and developing countries of the world. The analysis of legal norms and the practice of their application in a number of leading countries of the world shows ways to improve the regulation of labour relations in order to prevent and suppress human rights violations through the introduction of criminal liability of legal entities. Russian criminal legislation does not provide for criminal liability of legal entities. At the same time, non-payment of wages, violation of occupational health and safety rules at hazardous production facilities when carrying out work involving a risk to human life and health, and a high level of occupational injuries require improvement of the mechanism of criminal law enforcement in order to increase the effectiveness of protection of individual labour rights. It is advisable to introduce the institute of criminal liability of legal entities in the Russian legislation for violation of labour protection and safety requirements and non-payment of wages. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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