The Problem of Regulatory Employee Assessment Criteria for the Probationary Period Upon Hiring

The problem of statutory employee assessment criteria for the probationary period causes more and more labor law disputes on this issue together with contradictory court judgments, increases the burden on the courts, and reduces the authority of the national legal and judicial system. The author investigates the problem by analyzing the legal provisions on probation, the main legal and regulatory approaches to employee assessment at the probationary stage, the related issues, and the nature of the probation. The study focuses on the inequality of the parties to an employment agreement in relation to the probationary period clause, which contradicts the fundamental principles of law and requires the legislator to take action to improve the applicable labor law. The author proposes additional legal arrangements to eliminate legal uncertainty and contradictions in case law. The author believes that the most appropriate option today is to preserve the employer’s right to independently determine the assessment criteria and the testing procedure, provided that they are consolidated in local regulations, and proposes to add Part 8 to Article 70 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation as follows: “The testing procedure and the assessment criteria of the employee’s competence during the probationary period shall be determined by a local regulation based on the opinion of the elected body of the local trade union.”