A 2026 ruling from Russia’s Third Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction has established a significant precedent for employers: forwarding work files to a personal email account is sufficient grounds for dismissal under sub-paragraph (v), paragraph 6, part 1, Article 81 of the Labour Code (Decision No. 88-10469/2026).
What changed in the courts’ approach
The classic employee defence was: “I just took the work home for the weekend.” Courts often sided with employees, demanding that the employer prove actual damage resulting from the forwarding.
That position has now shifted. The mere act of sending documents outside the company’s perimeter is treated as a deliberate creation of a confidentiality risk. Employers no longer need to prove that harm actually occurred.
When employers lose anyway
A lawful dismissal is only possible when a company’s legal framework is airtight. If the trade-secret regime exists only on paper, the dismissed employee can go to court and:
- be reinstated;
- recover average earnings for the full period of forced absence, plus legal costs;
- walk away with client databases, proprietary technology, and internal procedures — with nothing you can do about it.
Three mandatory protection elements
A targeted internal policy. The Trade Secret Policy (Federal Law No. 98-FZ) must explicitly prohibit the use of personal email, messaging apps, and cloud storage for work documents. Courts interpret vague general wording in the employee’s favour.
Valid acknowledgment signatures. Every employee signature on internal documents must be legally unimpeachable. If a signature date raises doubts, or the document is not entered in the company’s register, it will not survive first-instance scrutiny.
A proper disciplinary procedure. The internal investigation must be conducted strictly within the timeframes and formalities set by the Labour Code: a written request for an employee explanation, a formal act of violation, and compliance with the statutory deadline for imposing a disciplinary sanction. A failure at any step is grounds for the court to annul the dismissal.
When to prepare the documents
A common mistake is to start formalising the trade-secret regime only after an incident. By the time a violation has occurred, it is too late to fix gaps in the paperwork: a court examines the state of the documentation as of the date of the forwarding, not the date of the claim. The full set of documents must be in order before any dispute arises.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can an employee be dismissed for a single instance of forwarding a work file? Yes — provided the company has properly formalised its trade-secret regime (Federal Law No. 98-FZ) and has followed the disciplinary procedure under Arts. 192–193 of the Labour Code.
Does the employer need to prove actual damage from the forwarding? Under the Third Cassation Court’s ruling (Decision No. 88-10469/2026) — no. The mere fact of sending a document outside the company’s perimeter constitutes a breach of the trade-secret regime.
What does a trade-secret regime consist of? A list of protected information, a Trade Secret Policy explicitly prohibiting personal email and messaging apps for work documents, classification marks on documents, and signed employee acknowledgments.
Does the argument “I just took work home” still hold? No — courts no longer accept it. Following Decision No. 88-10469/2026, the act of forwarding is itself sufficient for a lawful dismissal, provided the company’s documentation is in order.