Probation Period

a period of testing after hiring a person; according to Soviet labor law, the testing of a production or clerical worker’s fitness for a job.

The period is determined by an agreement between the two parties at the time the labor contract is concluded. The probation period may not exceed one week for production workers, two weeks for clerical workers (except for executives), and one month for executives. If a person belonging to the category of workers having to pass the certification procedure is hired by a scientific research, design, planning and construction, or technological organization or a scientific research division of a higher school, the probation period may be up to three months, even up to six months in some cases if consented to by the factory and office trade union committee. If the probation period has expired and the person continues to work, he is considered to have passed the test, and any subsequent dissolution of the labor contract is governed by the general labor laws. If the results of the probation are unsatisfactory, the administration may dismiss the person without the consent of the factory and office trade union committee and without paying severance benefits.

The probation period in hiring does not apply to persons below age 18; recent graduates of vocational and technical schools; recent graduates of higher and specialized secondary schools; and invalids of the Great Patriotic War directed for work on special priority quotas. There is also no probation period if a newly hired person has to go to a different locality or if a person is transferred to another enterprise or institution.