Moscow city council members ask district attorney to block mayor’s latest coronavirus orders

Eight deputies from two registered opposition parties serving on Moscow’s city council have formally asked District Attorney Denis Popov to review the legality of Mayor Sobyanin’s executive orders requiring local businesses to transfer 30 percent of all employees to remote work.

According to the newspaper Kommersant, the city council members want to know specifically if Russia’s Constitution and Labor Code allow the mayor to demand workers’ personal information. Deputy Mikhail Timonov, one of the authors of the appeal to the D.A., notes that Article 88 of Russia’s Labor Code prohibits employers from sharing workers’ personal data with anyone without their written consent, except when it’s necessary to prevent an employee’s injury or loss of life.

Believing that Sobyanin’s executive orders violate Russia’s Constitution and Labor Code, the city council members want Denis Popov to compel the mayor to bring his new policy into compliance with the law.

Moscow’s Information Technology Department insists that the city’s work with employee transit data is completely legal. Officials previously refused to view such information as personal data because the records were anonymized. 

Earlier this month, several of Russia’s biggest I.T. associations complained to Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media Minister Maxut Shadayev about requirements in Moscow that employers collect and share employees’ transit data. Shadayev’s ministry says, however, that President Putin’s executive order from May 11 allows the state to process employees’ information without their consent.