Court orders Moscow Metro to reinstate workers fired in 2021 for supporting Navalny

Employees of the Moscow metro, who were fired en masse after the publication of a list of potential participants in 2021 a pro-Navalny demonstration, have had their jobs reinstated in court. The head of the union for Moscow Metropolitan workers, Nikolay Gostev, spoke to publication Agentstvo about the proceedings.

Agentstvo reports that on May 31, Maxim Yakovlev won a suit against the Moscow metro, becoming the 37th employee to be reinstated by court order.

Gostev says more than 60 people appealed to the union after being fired. So far, 42 of them have decided to sue the metro. Five people subsequently gave up after losing their initial suits. All the others have gotten their jobs back.

The union head clarified that five court orders have not yet taken effect because appeals proceedings are ongoing. However, he says, workers will restart their jobs before those proceedings are complete.

Gostev added that the reinstated workers were compensated for being illegally fired. In a few cases, they won several million rubles (1 million rubles is roughly $12,380). The union head says compensation correlates to time off work — the first employee who was fired was reinstated after two months, while the last, Maxim Yakovlev, was out of work for more than two years.