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- Gray is gray: over 650 companies were included in the register of unscrupulous employers
Gray is gray: over 650 companies were included in the register of unscrupulous employers
By the beginning of February, the register of unscrupulous employers had grown to 656 companies. Rostrud launched it back in 2025 — the list includes enterprises that violate the rights of employees. For example, those who pay salaries below the minimum wage and change the format of the contract to save on taxes. For businesses, being on the registry means increased attention from inspectors, the risk of fines, and loss of access to government support. If we talk about employees, then working in such a company can lead to a decrease in social guarantees for them, the loss of some benefits and the threat of illegal dismissals. How this affects shadow employment is described in the Izvestia article.
Which companies were included in the register of unscrupulous employers
Since 2025, Rostrud has launched a register of unscrupulous employers. It includes companies and individual entrepreneurs who violate labor laws. By the beginning of February 2026, the list had grown to 656 names of organizations and sole proprietors, Izvestia calculated. At the same time, there were 603 such companies in 2025.
The only criterion for including an employer in the register is a violation of labor laws related to illegal employment, the Rostrud press service told Izvestia. This can be either a substitution of employment relations with contracts of a civil nature, or the absence of an employment contract at all, they added.
— If during the inspection the territorial bodies of Rostrud or law enforcement officers reveal signs of illegal employment, the employer will be included in such a register for up to one year. However, if the violations are eliminated early, the organization may be excluded from the list ahead of schedule," explained Natalia Milchakova, a leading analyst at Freedom Finance Global.
As a rule, such inspections of companies are carried out at the request of employees who believe that their labor rights have been violated, she added.
Most often, labor laws are not observed in the fields of trade, catering, construction, logistics, cleaning, and security services, said Sofya Lukinova, head of the legal department at VMT Consult. Some of them are characterized by a high proportion of small and microbusiness, low capital intensity and high intensity of competition, according to Tatiana Podolskaya, an expert at the Presidential Academy. According to her, this creates a powerful pressure on costs, including the wage fund, which provokes employers to minimize costs through informal employment, "gray" payment schemes and ignoring social guarantees.
Most of those included in the registry are sole proprietors, but there are also larger organizations. Among them are the confectionery factory "Zhako", the Kumertau Aviation Production Enterprise, the city—forming Sarapulsky electric generator plant, the Clean City group of waste disposal companies, as well as a secondary school in the village of Yerbogachen in the Irkutsk region. Izvestia contacted them for comments to find out why they were included in the register of unscrupulous employers.
Risks of illegal employment for employees and employers
Illegal employment carries significant risks for both employees and companies. For a worker, it means that there is no confirmed period of work: the time actually worked is not included in the insurance record, which further affects the timing of the pension and its amount, explained Marina Vorontsova, a lawyer and member of the Union of Lawyers and Bloggers at the Kutafin Moscow State Law University with the support of the Russian Bar Association.
In addition, in such a case, a person does not have the opportunity to receive paid leave and temporary disability benefits, she added.
Illegal employment also has serious consequences for an employer. An employee has the right to apply to the court with a request to establish an actual employment relationship for the entire period of informal work. If he is found to be right, the organization will have to pay additional taxes and insurance premiums for the entire period of employment, as well as pay a salary (if this did not happen), at least based on the minimum wage (starting in 2026 it is 27 093 rubles), said Marina Vorontsova.
Finally, the use of illegal labor increases the risk of increased attention and inspections by the labor inspectorate and tax authorities. They may also be held accountable for violating the Labor Code — this will entail an administrative fine (from 50 thousand to 100 thousand rubles). If the amount of unpaid taxes is particularly large, the employer faces criminal liability.
What happens if you get into the register of unscrupulous employers
In itself, the creation of a list of companies with violations of labor laws looks like a positive step, as it creates fundamentally new incentives for businesses, says Sofya Lukinova from VMT Consult.
— Employers find themselves in a situation of increased responsibility: attempts to save on taxes and insurance premiums now face not only fines, but also reputational costs, as well as limited access to government contracts and subsidies. In fact, companies will have to pay official salaries and correctly register employees, since a different employment model becomes unviable in the long run," she added.
That is, the registry turns into a preventive tool — the business includes the costs of legal employment in its economic model in advance, rather than looking for ways to circumvent the law, said Sofya Lukinova.
The company's presence in such a register is a signal to potential employees about the employer's dishonesty, said Lyudmila Ivanova—Shvets, Associate Professor of the Basic Department of Human Resource Management at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation. She added that a more noticeable effect is possible with the active use of this list by citizens — if applicants pay more attention to it and take the initiative by contacting the State Labor Inspectorate. According to experts interviewed by Izvestia, by the end of 2026, 2.5 thousand companies and sole proprietors may be included in the list.
The list of industries that are most often included in this register is unlikely to change significantly: sectors with a high proportion of non-standard employment and low barriers to entry will retain their leading positions, says Tatiana Podolskaya from the Presidential Academy.
In her opinion, the key challenge will be not just accumulating records, but increasing the effectiveness of the registry as a tool that changes the balance of costs and benefits for the employer in favor of legality. According to Sofya Lukinova, there are currently between 10 million and 15 million people in Russia who are unofficially employed or receive part of their income in a gray area.
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