According to the new regulation, people working in the country – expats and Russians alike – are obligated to take a 14-day vacation at one time. After that, remaining vacation time may be split in any way, but it must be used within the next 18 months.

The convention, therefore, forbids both accumulating months of vacations and zipping off to the beach for a couple of days.

Employers predictably are not particularly happy about the change, as losing their employees for two weeks is sure to be quite inconvenient.

At the same time, the point concerning the expiration of vacation days will be beneficial for employers, as when an employee is fired or leaves work, any unused vacation time has to be paid. Given the fact that the period of vacation expiration is now shorter, the companies will lose less money.

“This case is beneficial for both sides,” attorney Margarita Zakiyan told RT. “Two weeks is a good amount for a person to rest properly. Moreover, very often, especially in SMEs, employees cannot go on a desired 2-week vacation just because there is nobody to substitute for them or their employers don’t want a particular employee to leave for so long. From the employers’ side, the new regulation will bring more structure and stability and help avoid the chaos that happens when employees go on a vacation for a day or two.”