Legal Regulating Electronic Employment Contracts as a Modern Factor of Integration at International Regional Bodies (Exemplified by EEU, CIS and BRICS States Legislation)

The paper provides an analysis of general regulatory patterns concerning the signing, amendment and termination of electronic employment contracts within the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and BRICS as a trend of deepening integration at these international organizations. The core issue in this area is labor mobility in the context of digitization is not regulated internationally with efficiency. It gives rise to a controversy between the need to optimize labor mobility and a lack of comprehensive international instrument on electronic employment contract to improve legal regulation for more efficient utilization of human capital. The paper analyzes the legislation on electronic employment contracts in a number of EEU, CIS and BRICS member states to come up with recommendations for improving international legal regulation of electronic employment contracts via the relevant international instrument to be drafted. The authors identify a number of general regulatory patterns characteristic of countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, China, South Africa, India and Brazil, with their national labor law sharing the following features: possibility of HR electronic document exchange for balance of workers’ and employers’ interests as enabled by regulations; transparent working conditions; electronic employment contract reporting through the software linked to public authorities’ websites, and the use of electronic digital signature to sign contracts. This prevents unauthorized amendment of the terms of outstanding employment contracts and allows to track the time when the relevant rights and duties were assigned. The paper comes up with recommendations for better protection of labor rights and duties through the use of electronic tools to conclude employment contracts such as a bilingual online form.