How to properly register absenteeism for an employee according to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation?

What is considered truancy?

According to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, absenteeism is the absence of an employee at the workplace according to the work schedule without good reason.
It is recognized as a gross violation by the employee of labor discipline and the terms of the employment contract with the employer, as well as non-compliance with internal labor regulations. On our website you can familiarize yourself with the procedure for drawing up labor regulations and filling out this document. Read the article “Internal Labor Regulations – Sample 2021”.

What do modern employers understand by absenteeism? Of course, employees not showing up for work on time can cause a lot of trouble for company management. And employers often intimidate staff by dismissing them for being late for work, staying late after a lunch break, leaving work early, etc. But the situations listed above, as a rule, are not absenteeism.

Situations in which an employee’s absence from work (workplace) is recognized as absenteeism were considered by ConsultantPlus experts. If you have access to K+, go to the HR Guide; if you don't, get it for free.

On the other hand, the Labor Code of the Russian Federation does not have a clear list of valid reasons. Our legislators leave this issue to the discretion of the enterprise management. Apparently, the manager must independently assess the extent to which the reason for absence from work is valid. Valid reasons include illness, death of loved ones, natural disasters, road accidents, housing problems that require immediate solutions, etc. Each such absence must be confirmed by a sick leave certificate, a certificate from a medical institution, the traffic police, the housing management company, etc. d.

IMPORTANT! If an employee verbally warned the manager in advance about his absence from work, this will not be considered absenteeism. Especially when this fact can be confirmed by other employees of the enterprise - direct witnesses.

Employee absenteeism can create problems in the organization's activities, including financial ones. For example, a failure in the production process of an enterprise operating on a continuous cycle, an unsigned agreement for a major commercial transaction, as a result of which the enterprise could increase revenue, etc.

Important conditions for recognizing absenteeism

In judicial practice, there are cases where truant workers won lawsuits due to incorrectly documented and undocumented fact of absenteeism and were reinstated at work. That is why the employer must carefully prepare all documents related to absenteeism. However, you should not do this retroactively. As practice shows, such facts are provable and the court will side with the employee who committed absenteeism.

In what cases is an employee’s absence from work regarded as absenteeism:

If the employee is absent from the workplace during the entire work shift (even if it lasts less than 4 hours).

If the employee does not have a documented workplace and he was on the territory of the organization, the employer will not be able to give him official absenteeism. Conclusion: assign a workplace to each employee in the employment contract when he/she starts working.

If the employee is absent from the workplace for more than 4 hours.

Moreover, if the employee was absent for exactly 4 hours, such absence will not be considered absenteeism.

Absence from work for unexcused reasons.

The employee must confirm each absence from the workplace with supporting documents. For example, a sick leave certificate, a summons to court or for an inquiry, a certificate from a medical institution and other documents. At the same time, the employer has no right to fire a pregnant woman who has committed absenteeism.

If the fact of absenteeism is proven.

Each absence must be documented. Otherwise, if the employee goes to court, justice will not be on the employer’s side.

You can download the form and sample certificate of absence from work for free by clicking on the picture below:

How to register an employee’s absence from work?

An example of a report form can be downloaded below; you can develop your own form of a truancy report. The document must contain the following information: (click to expand)

Title of the document, date of execution;
Registration number;
Full name and position of the person from whom the document is being filled out;
Full name and position of witnesses - employees who can confirm that the employee is really not at work;
Full name, position of the guilty employee;
Date of absence, time period of absence;
Reasons for absence;
Signatures of the person filling out the act form, as well as signatures of witnesses.

When drawing up the act, it is necessary to enlist the support of at least two witnesses. The employee who committed absenteeism must also put his signature on the form.

Article 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation in 2020-2021

In Art. 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, namely sub. “a” clause 6 states that in case of absenteeism, the employer can legally dismiss the employee. In this case, the conditions mentioned earlier must be met.

But should a manager always fire an employee for absenteeism? This article gives him the right to do this, but does not establish such an obligation. Legislators leave the right of choice to the company's management. It can reprimand the employee, reprimand him or simply leave absenteeism unattended.

In some cases, the dismissal of an employee is possible due to him going on unauthorized leave without warning management. Every enterprise must have an annual vacation schedule. It is brought to the attention of employees. Lack of a schedule is considered a violation of labor laws.

Find out how to properly create a vacation schedule and download the form on our website. Read the article “Vacation schedule - form and sample for filling out in 2022.”

But in any case, going on vacation without the approval of management is a violation of labor discipline, and the employee may be held accountable for absenteeism.

You may also find these articles useful:

“How to properly arrange leave followed by dismissal?”;
“Order for annual paid leave - sample and form”.

Sometimes it happens that absenteeism ends the employee’s desire to resign of his own free will. The employee writes a letter of resignation and, without working for 2 weeks, does not go to work at the scheduled time.

If an employer dismisses an employee for absenteeism, he makes a corresponding note in his work book with reference to Art. 81 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

How to prove employee absenteeism

The main difficulty in documenting an employee’s absenteeism is to prove that the reason for his absence from the workplace is not valid. In some cases, an employee cannot notify the manager of his absence from work for objective reasons. For example, there was an emergency on the road, an employee was unexpectedly hospitalized in intensive care, etc.

IMPORTANT! There is no need to immediately prepare an order for dismissal or disciplinary action on the day of absenteeism. The main thing is to record the fact of a person’s absence from his workplace in the presence of several witnesses.

To do this, the HR department must draw up an employee absence report in any form on company letterhead. It is signed by witnesses who can confirm the situation. In addition, the act should indicate the place of preparation, the date and necessarily the exact time, the full name of the employee who compiled this document, as well as witnesses.

After the report is drawn up and before the reasons for the potential absentee’s absence from the workplace (if any) are clarified, o (failure to appear for unknown reasons) is entered in the work time sheet in form T-12 and T-13. In the future, if the employee submits supporting documents, he will be corrected, for example, to “B” (sick leave). If the employee does not have such documents, “PR” (absenteeism) is indicated.

An example of how absenteeism is reflected in a report card (in form T-13) was prepared by ConsultantPlus experts. Get free trial access to K+ and proceed to samples (including in excel format).

On our website you can find out the procedure for filling out time sheets, as well as download their forms. See articles:

“Working time sheet according to form T-12 - form”;
“Unified form T-13 - form and sample”.

When an employee appears at the workplace, he must be required to provide an explanatory note in writing about the reasons for absenteeism (in the absence of supporting documents). There are known cases where an employee fired for absenteeism filed a lawsuit against his employer for illegal dismissal and won the lawsuit.

Why can dismissal be considered illegal if the fact of absenteeism has been proven? The employee may refer to the last paragraph of Art. 192 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and the fact that the employer did not even inquire about the reasons for absenteeism and did not assess the severity of the offense and the circumstances of its commission.

IMPORTANT! In case of absenteeism, be sure to require a written explanation from the employee.

But there are cases when employees refuse to give an explanation of the reasons for absenteeism in writing. Then the employer should issue the employee, against signature, a notice of the need to provide an explanatory note. The document must indicate the number of days during which the employee must explain his absence. This is 2 working days (Article 193 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

If the employee refused to receive the notice or did not provide an explanation after the specified time, this should also be recorded in an act in the presence of witnesses.

Form

This document does not have a required form. Accordingly, it is allowed to draw up the act in a free style. A regular landscape sheet of paper will do for this. Although, to further simplify this procedure, many organizations create special templates. Typically, the letterhead already contains all the important information. The responsible person only needs to enter the information in the appropriate fields.

Essentially, there are two stakeholders: the employee and the employer. Each of them should receive one copy. Accordingly, the document is drawn up in two copies, which have equal legal force. It also does not matter whether the document is filled out on a computer or by hand. The main thing is that the “live” signatures of all responsible persons are affixed here.

( Video : “What to do if an employee does not show up and does not answer calls”)

Why is the act needed?

The main purpose of drawing up this act is to use it to document the fact of the employee’s absence. This document should not be confused with an absenteeism report, which already clearly states that the employee does not have a valid reason. After all, at that moment when an employee does not show up for work in the morning, the reason for his absence is still unknown.

Accordingly, this matter must continue. After all, after a certain time it will become clear why the employee did not come. So, if he does not provide evidence of a good reason, he will be issued absenteeism with all the ensuing consequences. If an employee did not show up due to serious illness and was unable to report this to his supervisor, this may be considered a valid reason. Accordingly, the act is not allowed to proceed further.

Documentation of employee absenteeism

So, we have figured out in what cases an employee’s absence from the workplace is considered absenteeism and how to prove it. How to document an employee’s absenteeism and its consequences?

The final decision on punishing an employee for absenteeism is made by the employer himself. An employee may be held liable for absenteeism in the form of:

Layoffs. When dismissing someone for absenteeism, you do not need to draw up 2 orders - on imposing a disciplinary sanction and terminating the employment contract. An order to terminate the employment contract is sufficient. As the basis for such an order, reports, acts, explanatory notes from the employee, time sheets, that is, documents that prove the fact of absenteeism and justify dismissal, are indicated.
Disciplinary action. It is issued by order of the head of the institution. This order does not have a unified form, so each enterprise can develop its own sample order. You can take the unified forms of other orders as a basis, so as not to forget to indicate all the necessary details in the document. For example, an order in form T-6 to grant an employee leave.

you can order in form T-6 on our website .

Such an order must reflect the following points:

the fact of violation by the employee of labor discipline, that is, absenteeism itself, indicating its date;
documents that prove the fact of absenteeism of the employee (memos, acts, explanatory notes from the employee, time sheets);
type of punishment (consequences of violation): reprimand, reprimand, deprivation of another bonus, etc.

On our website you can form an order for disciplinary action. See the article “Disciplinary sanction order - sample and form” .

In order to, if necessary, punish an employee for absenteeism, the employer must, upon hiring, familiarize him with his job responsibilities (employment contract, job description) and internal labor regulations against personal signature. Then, after a decision on dismissal or disciplinary action is made, if the employee goes to court, there will be a greater chance that justice will side with the employer.

What is considered a violation of labor discipline?

Each employer (legal or individual) has a mandatory set of labor discipline rules for all employees, which are defined in the following documents:

The general work schedule established by the employer.
An employment contract concluded with each employee.
A job description that is familiar to each employee holding the relevant position.
Labor protection instructions.
Internal regulations.

An employee being hired is legally required to comply with these rules (Articles 21, 189 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). If he violates them, then the employer has the right to punish for non-fulfillment or improper execution (Article 22, 192 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

The procedure for establishing the fact of a violation, identifying the employee’s guilt in committing it and making a decision on applying a penalty has a legally established procedure (Article 193 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation), failure to comply with which may lead to the recognition of the penalty as illegal.

ConsultantPlus experts explained in detail how to hold an employee accountable for failure to fulfill official duties. Get trial demo access to the system and upgrade to the Ready Solution for free.

Results

Absenteeism is the absence of an employee from the workplace for more than 4 hours in accordance with the work schedule. This is a gross violation by the employee of labor discipline, the terms of the employment contract with the employer and internal labor regulations. To recognize absenteeism, a number of conditions must be met:

absence of an employee from the workplace during the entire work shift;
absence of an employee from his workplace for more than 4 hours;
absence from work for unexcused reasons;
proof of the fact of absenteeism.

In case of absenteeism, the employer must require the employee to provide a written explanation for his absence from the workplace. An employee may be held liable for absenteeism in the form of:

dismissal, which is formalized by an order to terminate the employment contract with the employee;
disciplinary action, which is also formalized by a corresponding order.

Each incorrectly executed document can affect the outcome of the lawsuit not in favor of the employer if the employee goes to court due to illegal dismissal. So all documents must be drawn up properly at the right time and, if necessary, signed by witnesses to the situation.

Sources: Labor Code of the Russian Federation

You can find more complete information on the topic in ConsultantPlus. Free trial access to the system for 2 days.

Who should draw up and certify the truancy report?

An act of absence of an enterprise employee from work is a document that, along with sources such as a report or memo, is used to record the fact that an employee has violated his or her job duties. However, it has a distinctive feature: it is filled out not by one (as is the case with a report or memo), but by several employees.

The immediate supervisor of the employee who committed absenteeism can draw up a report. He can also certify the document:

a representative of the organization's management (for example, deputy director for human resources);
head of human resources;
representative of a trade union organization (if the employee is a member of a trade union).

Some companies prefer to call the group of the above persons a commission - by analogy with the certification commission, which is formed to assess the suitability of an employee’s qualifications for the position held when considering the possibility of his dismissal under clause 3 of Art. 81 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

Is the employer obligated to familiarize the employee with reports of his absence from work? Are there any risks of dismissal for absenteeism being declared illegal if the employee is not familiar with these acts? The answers to these questions are in ConsultantPlus. Get trial demo access to the K+ system and find out the experts' opinions for free.