Belarusian Ministry Of Labor: Entrepreneur Is Not Employee

Individual entrepreneurs received a curious answer.

In September of this year, the NGO “Perspective” appealed to Minister of Labor Iryna Kastsevich with regard to the regime of work for individuals in shopping centers. It was about compliance with the article of the Labor Code, providing for a normalized working week of 40 hours.

According to “Perspective”, in a number of regions and Minsk, there are frequent cases when landlords order entrepreneurs in rental contracts to be at their workplace from 48 to 70 hours a week. Penalties are issued for breach of contract, Solidarity reports.

The organization is confident that this state of affairs is unacceptable in relation to entrepreneurs working without a hired person. Moreover, recently there has been a tendency to reduce hired personnel for economic reasons.

- It is clear that the shopping centers, setting the regime of the day, want to attract more customers, but individual entrepreneurs should be protected by the labor law, like all citizens. The issue of vacation was also raised so that it was spelled out in lease agreements, - “Perspective” noted in September.

In early October, the answer came from the Ministry of Labor. The leader of the “Perspective” Anatol Shumchanka wrote the following about it:

- Individual entrepreneurs were struck by their rights to work and rest, when the concluded lease agreements do not provide for such things, forcing some individuals to work 56-70 hours a week and without vacation, and if you fail to do it, then comes a fine or deprivation of a trading place.

Here is a quote from the response of the Ministry:

- An individual entrepreneur in the implementation of their entrepreneurial activity is not engaged in the labor relations with the employer, which means, is not an employee, but they can act as an employer in the presence of employees who work for them on the basis of an employment contract. (...)

The implementation by an individual of entrepreneurial activity is not an employment relationship. Thus, an individual entrepreneur is not an employee, does not have an employment relationship with the employer and, therefore, the norms of labor legislation, including norms on working hours, rest time, labor leave, do not apply to them.

What they told the entrepreneurs say in MART

In May of this year, after a similar request, the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade told entrepreneurs that the law did not contain a norm providing for the mandatory compliance of the regime of work os a shopping facility, catering facility with the regime of a shopping center, market, in the territory or area of which they are located.

In MART, they emphasized that individual entrepreneurs have the right to independently establish the regime of operation of trade facilities. Including those located in shopping centers, with the exception of the regime of work of such facilities after 23.00 and before 7.00.