12 April 2020
Non-performance of contracts, transition to telework and closed court buildings - these are just the tip of an iceberg of risks and expenses that the businesses will have to deal with. What should one start with to save the company? How exactly to transition to telework? What will happen to staff salaries? The new questions need immediate legal assistance.
Due to coronavirus spread many chief executive officers may be confused and do not know how to structure further work and to protect their business. For telework, it is necessary to issue an order on transition to a new format of work due to prevention of coronavirus spread. “Then, you have to sign an additional agreement with each employee and to define the period of employee’s teleworking time, list of duties, work hours, reporting guidelines”, says Tatiana Nikolaenko, Head of Labour Law Practice, Khrenov&Partners.
If your business is paying loans to banks and is not subject to state support, the debt may be repurchased by a stronger player. “Review the loan terms and try to change those that jeopardise your business with default or bankruptcy. You will have to pay the debt earlier or later, but to whom and at what terms – it is going to be your headache”, Anna Burdina, Senior Associate, Khrenov&Partners, believes.
Andrey Ivanov, Head of Projects, Khrenov&Partners, is sure that “if there is an efficient corporate management system within the company which is compliant with the highest standards, it will be operable at pandemic times as well – it may just need some fine tuning and be more technological”. As to those who do not possess such system, they will have to switch to a new mode as soon as possible.
Before switching to electronic document flow, Dmitry Lobachev, Head of Projects, Khrenov&Partners, believes it’s necessary to record the guidelines for exchanging legally important documents, e-mail addresses and responsible persons in an additional agreement or official correspondence.
The full article may be read here (in Russian).
