Petrov Alexey - Professor, Labour Law Department, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Doctor of Juridical Sciences. E-mail: alexey.petrov@yandex.ru
Address: National Research University — Higher School of Economics, 20, Myasnitskaya str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation.

The article is an attempt to develop new approaches to define the essence and legal nature of working time which is a major institution of labour law. The sources for the analysis are the RF Constitution and Chapter 4 of RF Labour Code, conventions of international law, works of modern Russian experts in labour law. Some norms of foreign employment legislations of France, Belarus, the UK have been touched upon. The author examines the concept of working time its essence and types. It is noted that working time is being studied in many areas including law, psychology, sociology, applying different methodological approaches. The paper analyzes advantages and disadvantages of legal regulation of working time in the RF. Among the advantages, the author mentions a clear separation of working time from leisure, limiting extra hour work and labour in harmful conditions. As to the disadvantages, he specifies illiterate definitions of working time in terms of law as they may be affected by ambiguity and do not promote to efficient labour. The author proposes the following suggestions. The definition of working time in Chapter 1 of the RF Labour Code should differentiate legal relations and their grounds. As Russian labour law regulates labour relations but not working relations, it seems relevant to remove the ambiguous concept of working time substituting it in the Labour Code, legislation collective and employment agreements with a more precise term. The term time of labour is suggested. Third, the sources of Russian labour law should not contain the categories of working time. In particular, it is irrelevant to specify subcategories of work beyond normal working time besides overtime work and overwork.