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Bill Sets Additional Conditions for Hiring Foreign Workers

Migrant workers could be facing more paperwork to keep their jobs. Vladimir Filonov / MT

The government has submitted a bill to the State Duma that seeks to implement more rigorous rules for hiring foreign workers, according to a statement posted on the Cabinet website on Tuesday.

The bill drafted by the Labor Ministry proposes an addendum to the Labor Code establishing new legal norms for regulating work by foreigners, Interfax said.

The clause will oblige foreign workers to have medical insurance when making a new employment contract. It will also allow employers to fire a foreign worker if his medical insurance has expired and he has not provided new documents within a month.

The draft legislation also allows the firing of a foreign employee if his permit to work in the country expires and no new documents are received within a month.

The proposed regulations will also require employers that hire foreign workers to include in work contracts additional information on their work permits, tax patents and temporary or permanent residence permits.

The bill was approved at a meeting of a tripartite commission on regulating social and labor relations. The document was also discussed and approved at the Cabinet meeting on Nov. 14, the government’s website said.

The draft legislation comes in the wake of a number of incidents involving migrant workers in recent weeks, including police raids on markets, nationalist rallies and an ethnic riot in the southern district of Biryulyovo, when ethnic Russians attacked the workplace of an Azeri suspected of killing a Russian.

Other measures recently proposed include limiting real estate purchases by foreigners and creating a ministry responsible for ethnic issues.

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