Labor disputes are of two types: collective and individual. They have a different legal nature, therefore, different methods are used to resolve them. Article three hundred and eighty-second of the Labor Code of Russia provides for the resolution of individual labor disputes by the courts or special commissions that deal with labor disputes. This means that the law provides for the resolution of labor disputes at two levels - judicial and pre-trial. Conventionally, individual disputes can be divided into:
- considered at first by the labor dispute committee, and the court joins only if one of the parties or both wants to appeal the decision of this commission;
- considered initially by the court.
Commissions that consider labor disputes at enterprises and organizations are created on the initiative of both parties involved in labor relations. The resolution of labor disputes of an individual order is carried out only by commissions that are created at the place of work of that member of the labor collective who is involved in this conflict. If there is no commission at the place of his work, then for any individual disputes, you must immediately go to court.
The resolution of labor disputes by such a commission is regulated by the Labor Code, and the resolution in court is governed by the Code of Civil Procedure, as well as the Federal Law “On Justices of the Peace of Russia” dated December 17, 1998, and it is handled by a justice of the peace. The only exception is cases where consideration is given to reinstatement in the workplace (article twenty-two of the Code of Civil Procedure of Russia). Such matters are handled by the main link of the federal courts of general jurisdiction, that is, all district courts. According to the general rule adopted by the courts, a lawsuit is filed at the location of the defendant or his property.
It is important to take into account that from the legal nature of the decisions of the commission on individual labor disputes, their compulsory solution does not expire, but only is the will of the state to ensure the restoration, including forcibly, of workers' rights.
It should be noted that for some categories of workers there is a special procedure for resolving labor disputes. Such categories include employees who are elected, appointed and approved by their highest state bodies in Russia, as well as judges and prosecutors. Their labor disputes are regulated by the laws of the Russian Federation “On the Prosecutor's Office” and “On the Status of Judges”, as well as some other laws. The resolution of disputes in which public servants participate may be carried out in a pre-trial procedure in a higher authority, taking into account the order of subordination. It is also possible in some cases to apply laws that consider the violation of the freedoms and rights of citizens.
The resolution of collective labor disputes is stipulated in the sixty-first chapter of the Labor Code of Russia, the norms of which provide for certain conciliation procedures conducted by the conciliation commission with the participation of an intermediary, or the consideration of such a dispute by special labor arbitration. The same chapter contains detailed regulation of strikes, as one of the measures for resolving a collective labor dispute. It follows that there is no way to protect the rights of a collective through a court in the sphere of labor legislation, nor in the Civil Procedure Code , or in the Administrative Procedure Code of the Russian Federation.
So, individual disputes in the field of labor legislation in Russia can be resolved both at the pre-trial and judicial levels. And to solve labor disputes in which the whole team or a certain part of it is involved, there is only an extrajudicial path.