Travel + Leisure

Business trip is a trip of an employee by order of the head of the enterprise, association, institution, organization for a certain period of time to another locality to perform a service order outside the place of his permanent work.

That is, the official business trip is understood as a trip of an employee by order of the employer for a certain period of time to perform the official assignment outside the place of permanent work.

Regulatory framework

The main regulatory framework governing the relations between the employer and the traveling employee is Chapter 24 of the Labour Code of the Russian Federation, which contains clauses on what a business trip is, guarantees and compensations for business trips.

A number of conditions under which travel is a business trip

The following conditions are derived from the above definition, under which a trip may be considered a business trip

• the travel is undertaken by an employee of the enterprise. In other words, a natural person must have an employment relationship and work under an employment contract;
• The employee’s trip must take place in another locality and not in the place of permanent employment;
• The trip is carried out by order of the head of the enterprise for
• of carrying out an official assignment;
• the assignment is performed outside the employee’s permanent place of work;
• travel is limited to a certain period of time;
• the employee does not perform his or her work on the road and his or her work is not of a travelling nature.

In addition, business trips are also considered to be the trips of employees by order of the head of the parent company to a branch (from one branch to another) or vice versa (provided that the branches of the company or the parent company and the branch are located in different localities).

When travel is not considered official business travel

You can’t count as a business trip:

• Travel of employees whose work activities take place constantly on the road;
• Travel of employees whose work activities are of an itinerant nature. In other words, business travel does not include periodic travel by staff members in connection with core work that is of a travel-related nature;
• travel of employees whose labor activity at the enterprise is not fixed by the labor agreement.

Types of business trips

The regulations distinguish between two types of business trips: within and outside Russia.

Working trips are also divided into:

• Short-term and long-term business trips;
• single trips and group trips;
• Scheduled and unscheduled trips.

Business trip period

The duration of the business trip is determined by the employer himself and depends on the complexity and scope of the task performed, as well as other circumstances on which the execution of the assignment may depend.

The day of departure is the date of departure of the train, plane, bus or other vehicle from the place of permanent work of the traveller, and the day of arrival from the business trip is the date of arrival of the vehicle in the place of permanent work.

Guarantees for seconded employees

A staff member on assignment travel is guaranteed:

• Retention of the workplace and position;
• Retention of the average salary for all working days of the week at the permanent duty station, plus double weekend pay;
• reimbursement of travel expenses.

Guarantees and compensations for business trips are regulated by the Russian legislation and are specified in the Regulations on business trips, as well as in Articles 167 and 168 of the LC.

Reimbursement of travel expenses

Employees are entitled to reimbursement of expenses and other compensations in connection with official business trips:

• Residential expenses (e.g. daily subsistence allowance for the duration of a business trip);
• the cost of travel to and from the place of destination;
• costs of renting residential premises;
• other additional expenses.

Working hours of seconded employees

An employee on a business trip is subject to the working hours of the company to which he or she is assigned.

Salary for the period of staying on a business trip

For all working days of the week according to the schedule established at the place of permanent work, the sent employee retains the average earnings.

Salary for the period of stay in a business trip is calculated by multiplying the average daily salary of the employee by the number of working days of the trip (including days of stay in transit).

Calculation of the average salary is made regardless of the work mode based on the actual accrued salary and actually worked time for 12 calendar months preceding the period during which the average salary of the employee is kept.

The calendar month is the period from 1 to 30 (31) day of the respective month inclusive (in February – 28 (29) day inclusive).

The following periods shall be excluded from the calculation of average earnings:

• when, in accordance with Russian law, an employee retained his or her average earnings, except for breaks to feed a child;
• when the employee received temporary disability or maternity benefits;
• when the employee was unable to perform work due to downtime due to the fault of the employer or reasons beyond the control of the employer and the employee due to a strike, but did not participate in it;
• when the employee was granted additional paid days off to care for disabled children and disabled persons from childhood;
• In other cases, in which the employee was relieved of work with or without full or partial pay in accordance with the law.

The procedure of official business trip registration

Prior to traveling on a business trip, a staff member must give his or her consent or refusal to travel in writing, having previously read the objectives and terms of reference of the assignment.

The secondment of a staff member shall be documented. In order to recognize the trip as valid, it is necessary to formalize it:

• an order to send a staff member on a business trip;
• Travel document;
• a work assignment;
• report on the work done;
• Advance report.

However, according to the new travel rules, it is sufficient to issue an order (instruction) to send a staff member on a business trip. The need to issue a travel document and a work assignment is no longer required.