In order to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus infection COVID-2019 in Russia, the days from April 4 to May 12, 2020 were declared non-working. However, Russia did not suspend its activities, fully fulfilled all the tasks assigned to the apparatus of the Trade Union for this period.

Recall that the activities of the ROGWU are not suspended on the basis of the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 02.04.2020 No. 239 ‘On measures to ensure the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population in the Russian Federation in connection with the spread of a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19),’ since the Trade Union is directly connected with continuously operating organizations of the oil, gas, chemical and other industries and, by virtue of the requirements of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, adoption is local x regulations and personnel decisions of these organizations is impossible without his participation.

Over the past month, meetings of the Russian Trade Union Council, its Presidium and meetings of the standing committees were held in online, a full-fledged distance learning course of trade union activists was successfully completed, the necessary contacts were successfully established with structural organizations, a single telephone was created for communication with members of the Trade Union. Since the beginning of May, the system and technical conditions and capabilities for conducting video conference calls have been worked out, and now they are mandatory twice a week.

The experience gained and the scheme of work of the trade union organization in the specific conditions of ‘remote’ work was highly appreciated by the leadership of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia, which invited the ROGWU  to share its findings with colleagues.

The main task of any organization during a pandemic and self-isolation is to survive this time with the least loss. Against the background of the observed spread of a new coronavirus infection, the transfer of employees to remote work, to self-isolation mode, has become the most effective way to protect themselves from infection. Therefore, we decided to urgently establish remote work for employees of the apparatus of the Trade Union, compiled lists, grouping them according to the mode of work: working remotely, continuing to go to the office.

Colleagues had to grow up very quickly: in the current conditions, a special level of self-awareness, planning, self-organization is required, now you can’t just go with the flow, you need to adapt to new conditions.

A memo was sent to employees for work.

Recall that labor law allows workers to work either at the workplace or remotely. In accordance with Art. 312.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, remote work means the fulfillment of a labor function defined by an employment contract:

• outside the location of the employer, its branch, representative office, other separate structural unit (including those located in another locality);
• outside a stationary workplace, territory or facility directly or indirectly controlled by the employer.

A prerequisite is the use of public information and telecommunication networks, including the Internet, to perform this labor function and to carry out interaction between the employer and employee on issues related to its implementation.

The Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia announced that the spread of coronavirus infection is one of the circumstances of force majeure affecting the rights of citizens, and each employee can ask the employer to transfer to remote work if there is a possibility as such.

The ROGWU leadership managed to fully control the work processes, and the team members managed to interact with each other, consult, and share the results. For this, certain rules for working from home were developed:

- Work schedule. The hours of operation are established and determined.

- Terms of interaction with the employer. As noted above, teleworking involves the interaction of the parties through the Internet, telephone, mail or courier, as well as through periodic personal meetings at the employer's office.

- Toolkit for remote work. To organize remote work, we provided the ability to create a remote workplace. There are many special software products that allow you to provide high-quality organization of remote work, opportunities for telephone, video and conference calls. For productive work from home, we decided to actively use Microsoft Teams.

- Work plan. Every week on Mondays, a work plan is developed for the employee working remotely to implement it, making changes to it, or agreeing on certain conditions, can be done by electronic correspondence.