This article analyses cases of early termination of the powers of local administration heads under the new Federal Law ‘On the General Principles of Local Self-Government ina Unified System of Public Authority,’ the author notes that it did not resolve the long-standing issue regarding the possibilities and limits of applying labour law provisions to cases of dismissal of heads of local administrations. At the same time, a literal interpretation of the provisions of the new law, confirmed to a certain extentby established practice, makes it impossible to terminate a contract with the head of a local administration on a wide variety of grounds provided forby labour legislation, including in situations where such terminationis objectively necessary. Recognising the admissibility of dismissing heads in such cases calls into question the entire legal construct of the relationship between general labour and special service regulations in this area. In this regard, the author proposes to supplement Article 23 of the Federal Law ‘On the General Principles of Local Self-Government in a Unified System of Public Authority’ with a reference to the possibility of early termination of the heads of local administrations on certain grounds provided for by the Labour Code of the Russian Federation.