Annotation

The article examines the institution of de facto admission to work as applied to public service relations — both state and municipal. The legal nature of de facto admission is analyzed as an independent ground for the emergence of employment relations, characterized in labour law doctrine as implied conduct (conclusive actions) of the parties. The article identifies practical problems arising from the application of this institution in the public service sphere: the conflict between employee guarantees enshrined in Article 67 of the Labour Code of the Russian Federation and mandatory recruitment procedures, as well as situations where the de facto admitted person fails to meet qualification requirements or is subject to statutory restrictions on holding public office. Drawing on an analysis of contradictory case law of cassation courts, the article also examines the applicability of Article 58(4) of the Labour Code to cases where a civil servant continues to perform duties after the expiry of a fixed-term service contract. The authors justify the need to extend the rules on de facto appointment to civil servants and local government employees and propose a legislative solution to the identified conflicts: the establishment of a universal mechanism providing for the mandatory formalisation of any employment relationships that arise, with the subsequent possibility of terminating them should breaches of the mandatory conditions for entry into the civil service be identified, whilst also ensuring that civil servants retain the relevant safeguards where they are not at fault.