How to get a work book. For the first time and upon dismissal

A work book is one of the most important documents for every person. It stores information about education, qualifications, length of service, positions held, reasons for dismissal, and so on. It can be evidence of career growth and become an important argument if you want to get a more prestigious position, and it is also a source for correctly calculating your pension. That is why the work record book should be treated with special attention and care.

How to get a work book for the first time

As a rule, a work book is drawn up at the very beginning of the career path - at the first employment. There are several ways to obtain it:

the personnel officer or the head of the enterprise in which he is employed issues and draws up a work book for an applicant for a particular vacancy;
the future employee buys this document at a stationery store and fills out personal data independently.
Next, he takes the book to the personnel department of the organization and gives it there for making all the necessary entries and for further storage. Attention! You cannot make any entries regarding work in your work book yourself! They are strictly within the competence of personnel specialists and authorized representatives of enterprises and organizations.
Some universities also provide their graduates with work books as a diploma supplement. Of course, this is unlikely to allow yesterday’s student to find a job faster, but it will definitely speed up the process of applying for a new job.

Important! It must be remembered that the work book is essentially a strict reporting form, therefore its execution and all records must be kept in full compliance with the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

What are the requirements?

In order for the copy to have legal force and be accepted by various government authorities, the management of the company where the citizen works must understand the rules for the execution and certification of this document. Therefore, the following requirements are taken into account:

It will not be possible to do it yourself, since the original is in the personnel department, so it is the employees of this department who are involved in this process;
to obtain a document, you need to correctly write an application for a copy of the work book, drawn up in the name of the head of the company, and it will certainly indicate the reason for preparing the paper;
for it to be valid, it must be endorsed by the head of the enterprise.

If a copy is simply made, it will not have legal force, and therefore the documentation will be refused acceptance.

How to get a work book if you lose it

No one is immune from the unexpected loss of a work record. It is clear that it is unlikely that it will be possible to return the original, but in this case you can get a duplicate. To do this, you need to contact your employer at your last place of work. This must be done in writing:

or by personally submitting an application for a duplicate,
or by sending a letter by Russian Post with an inventory and notification of delivery.

When registering a duplicate, the HR department specialist will make a note about the restoration of seniority. In this case, you will only be able to re-enter information that has documentary evidence. In other words, if an employee does not have documents indicating that during a certain period of time he worked at a particular enterprise in such and such a position, then such a record at his last place of work cannot be restored.

The easiest way is if you have a certified copy of the work in hand - this will facilitate the process of restoring it, but if not, then you will have to run around.

To fully restore your experience, you will need to visit all those organizations and enterprises where you previously worked. They will have to take all the necessary orders, extracts and certificates. If this is not possible, for example, because the enterprise has closed, you will need to visit the state archive of the locality where it was registered.

Attention! If the loss of the work record was due to the fault of the employer, then he must bear all the hassle and costs of restoring it. The employee only needs to give the employer’s representative a power of attorney to obtain the necessary information to restore the work record.

How is it certified?

Certification of a document must be carried out according to certain rules. How to certify a copy of a work record book? For this, the following nuances are taken into account:

Initially, all pages of the original must be photographed, for which standard copying equipment is used, but the presence of unreadable text is not allowed;
It is not allowed to make copies on two sides of one sheet;
The accuracy of the information contained on each page is confirmed by the seal and signature of the manager or responsible person;
there are no requirements for the form of the seal, so any company stamp or office seal can be used;
the document is issued free of charge, so the employer does not have the right to demand that the employee pay any remuneration;
documentation is created solely on the basis of a written application previously received from the employee.

It is very important to know how to certify a copy of a work record book. The employer will then be able to provide the employee upon request with the correct document that has legal force.

We receive a work book upon dismissal

By law, the employer is required to issue a work book to the resigning employee on the last day of work. In order to receive a work record, an employee does not have to write any statements, however, after this document has been issued to him, he is required to sign in the internal journal for recording the movement of work books. Next, the personnel specialist makes a corresponding entry in the employee’s personal card and it is also certified by his autograph.

If for some reason a resigned employee cannot receive a work permit in person, he can send his representative to pick it up. However, it must first be provided with a power of attorney certified by a notary.

Another option is to ask the employer to send him the work book by registered mail with an inventory and notification of delivery via Russian Post at the actual place of residence.

Features of contacting a notary

If a person needs a copy of his work record, and is unemployed, then he will have to seek the services of a notary. To do this, it is important to provide the specialist with a passport, original work book and other documents if necessary.

Certification of such a document is considered a simple and quick process, but you will have to pay the notary a fairly significant amount of money for the services. A correctly certified document is valid indefinitely, and therefore loses legal force only after any changes are made to the original.

Thus, you may need a copy of your work record for a foreign passport, visa, registration of a pension or receipt of other government services. Therefore, it is important to understand how it is properly drawn up, how it is certified, and also for how long it has legal force. The management of the company must be well aware of how the document is properly certified. If a person is unemployed at the time of applying for various benefits or government services, then he can turn to a notary for certification.

How to get a work book without being fired

According to the law, work books during the employee’s work at the enterprise are stored in the employer’s safe, which bears full responsibility for their availability, content and safety. HR specialists have no legal grounds for temporarily issuing a work book in the hands of the employee. Therefore, if for some reason an employee still needs a work permit, he can submit a written application only for the issuance of a certified copy of it.

In those rare situations when the original is needed, you can ask for it to be issued in writing with a mandatory indication of the reason (the need to make a notarized copy is perfect), a date and a signature with a transcript. It’s not a fact that the employer will meet you halfway, but, as they say, trying is not torture.

When is it required?

The need for such a document may arise for various reasons. It should be provided to various government bodies, and a copy of the work book is considered a truly significant document. If the original is lost, this leads to numerous negative consequences, since it is quite difficult to restore previously existing records, and this is especially true if a citizen changes many places of employment in a short period of time.

Why do you need a copy of the work record? Most often this document is required in the following situations:

Obtaining a visa required to visit other countries.
Transfer of information to the Pension Fund regarding the citizen’s place of work.
Providing documentation to the Pension Fund for calculating length of service upon retirement.
Registration of a foreign passport.
Restoring the original document.
Drawing up a resume, which is then submitted to a potential employer.
Obtaining a loan from a bank or other similar institution.

It would seem that everything is already clear. But in many of the above situations, people are interested in why a copy of the work record is needed. Based on this document, employees of various government bodies can obtain information about the citizen’s place of employment and work experience.

The employee does not return the borrowed work

An employer may find itself in a difficult situation if an employee asks for a work permit and does not return it. It is even more unpleasant when the work permit is issued on a legal basis, for example, to apply for a pension: the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation is required to provide the original of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation in Art. 62 allows and even orders such extradition. The legislation does not indicate what the employer should do and what the employee may face for this.

An employer cannot bring a negligent employee to disciplinary liability, because failure to return work is not included in the list of offenses for which it is provided for (Article 21 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). If the work permit was issued on parole, the employer may be punished by control authorities, since responsibility for storing these documents rests with him. But if the issuance was on a legal basis, the employer is not guilty of the absence of labor on site. To protect yourself, you should ask the employee for an explanation of the reason for the delay in return,

support it with a request to the Pension Fund. If an employee has lost his or her work record before or after using it to apply for a pension, the employer must issue a duplicate within 15 days.

A copy of the work book - purposes of obtaining, types, validity period and sample

A work book is, first of all, a strict reporting form. Therefore, the organization of work on its maintenance, storage and accounting is determined by a separate order of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 225 dated April 16, 2003, which establishes the basic requirements on this issue. And one of the main points that follows from the provisions of this regulatory act is that the employer bears full responsibility for the safety of the labor register. If it is lost or damaged, regardless of who is responsible for this fact, the company has a number of steps to restore all records in the labor record. Therefore, despite the fact that neither this nor any other regulatory act states that the employer has the right to issue a labor register to the employee at his request, issuing the document is not recommended. There is a separate message from Rostrud on this topic, number 656–6-0.

There is only one option when an employer is obliged to issue an employment document to an employee - his dismissal. And only this reason is valid for handing over the labor register even to its owner.

There are several purposes for which an employee may need a work book. And, of course, they are all serious. Thus, an institution that requires a copy of this document may be:

A credit institution when a person applies for a loan. The bank needs to ensure the reliability of its future borrower. And by copying from a work record book you can learn quite a lot about a person, namely the labor register is:
Evidence of the information that the borrower provided in the loan application form.
An important point is how many years a person has been working in one place. Clients who do not run from place to place are more trusted by credit institutions.
Using the labor register, the bank's security service can quickly view the reasons for dismissal from previous jobs. And there are dismissals “under the article” to properly determine the degree of reliability of the client. Agree that the 2-NDFL certificate will not provide such information about a person.
And most importantly, if payments are late, the bank will be able, by court order, to collect the arrears from wages directly through the organization where the borrower is employed.
The department of the Federal Migration Service is considered to be the next in descending order of requests for a copy of the work report. When a person applies for a foreign passport. Note that such a requirement is no longer legally valid, but there are some departments that still request a copy of the labor register in order to verify the applicant’s ten-year period of work experience before receiving a passport. If a person does not want to provide a copy, you can begin to challenge this action of the institution in court, but this will take some time.
There are questions from the embassies of some countries when applying for a visa.
It happens that a future employer asks for a copy of a work report at a time when the employee has not yet left his existing place of work. With the help of the labor register, a promising employer can quickly find out the companies where the applicant worked, the positions he held, as well as how often he changed places of employment and for what (even formal) reason he left.
Bailiffs (FSSP) have the right to request a copy when imposing alimony payments on an employee.
A copy may be requested by social security services when applying for benefits and benefits.
In some cases, it becomes necessary to prepare a copy for use in the employing company.
The most important reason for obtaining a copy of the work record and, moreover, having one feature is the requirement of the Pension Fund to confirm a person’s work experience before retiring. Note that fund employees can also make do with a copy of the document, but the document will have legal force for them only if it is notarized. A copy certified by the employer will not be enough. This point is clarified in the comments of the Pension Fund No. 25–19/14554 dated December 29, 2005, where the fund comments that in order to make their copy, they need either the original labor register, or a copy, but certified by a notary. And since the employer does not have the right to refuse to issue an employee a copy of the work report, the HR officer here needs to choose from two options:
Or give the person the original book for a certain time, so that the fund employees themselves make a copy and certify it on the spot.

Naturally, a notarized copy costs money, so employers, as a rule, follow the second path, explaining to the employee in every available way that all responsibility lies on the shoulders of the employer. And if you lose a book and are forced to issue a duplicate, restoring it will take a lot of time and effort.

If we consider the issue of the validity period of a certified copy, then it should be noted that there are 2 options:

When a copy of the work document is certified by the employer, according to standard rules it is considered valid for a month. But if any entries are made in the book during this period, it becomes illegitimate.
If the copy is certified by a notary, it has an unlimited validity period. Although similar to the previous option, when new entries are made to it, it loses its validity.

How to get another work book

The work book must be created by the first employer, and then it is transferred along with the new employment, or a part-time job must be registered in other jobs. But in practice, situations may arise when a person, after being fired, lost his work book and found it after registering a duplicate. Or he deliberately went into hiding so as not to make the unpleasant recordings public. Now there are two copies available, which, although not directly permitted, is not prohibited by the laws of the Russian Federation. There is no punishment for this.

However, if the employer finds out that the employee has unprovided labor, he will have the right to dismiss him. Reason: provision of false documents during employment.

An employee does not need two work books: when the time comes to apply for a pension or some kind of benefit, he will need to provide only one, both at the same time “pull” for fraud.

If the second work is fake, this is a direct forgery and criminal liability.

Therefore, in most cases, the employee does not need a second labor report: it is much more advisable to follow the legislation of the Russian Federation.

How quickly is it done?

Often this document is needed urgently. Making a copy of the work book should not take more than three days from the moment the application for its creation is submitted to the employer. If this deadline is violated, the head of the company may be held administratively liable on the basis of Art. 5.27 Code of Administrative Offences.

Violations of this period are permitted only if there are compelling reasons. Late issuance of a copy of the work book may be due to the following factors:

the employee is absent from the workplace on the day when the documentation is required to be handed over to him;
The employee himself refuses to accept documentation certified by the employer.

As a standard, the document is generated within one day, so you don’t have to wait too long.

The employer refuses to issue a work permit: how to solve the problem

Quite often it happens that the employer and employee part as bitter enemies. In retaliation, the former employer may flatly refuse to give the unwanted employee his work book.

If all possibilities to reach an agreement with him through oral negotiations have been exhausted, then there is only one option left: go to court.

But first you should stock up on a copy of a written statement, the original of which must be given to the employer. In it, you should ask the former employer in any form to issue a work book and put a date on it. If after three days the work permit is not issued, then you can safely go to court with this application.

As compensation in a statement of claim, you can demand an amount equal to the average salary for the period of forced absence due to the lack of a work book. As practice shows, in such cases the courts accommodate employees halfway and award them financial compensation.

Design rules

A copy of the book can be made in the form of simple sheets or stapled and stitched in accordance with all office work requirements. As a rule, the decision on how the document will look can be made by the employee himself. Basic requirements for copying:

Each sheet must bear the certification “Copy is correct.” Next to it there should be a date, the signature of the person in charge and a seal (of the entire enterprise, accounting or human resources department).
Copies are made from all sheets of the book where there are entries, not excluding the title page and inserts in the work sheet.
The last page of the copy should contain the phrase “Currently employed in the same position” or indicating the new position if the employee has been transferred.
Copy sheets can be stapled or sewn. In the latter case, the document is numbered, and on the back the number of pages in it is indicated, the date, signature, seal and o.
Work pages can be photocopied or printed . The only requirement is high print quality and normal document readability. If any parts of the duplicate are illegible or erased, this may render it invalid.

It is worth considering that the seal affixed to the pages of the copy should not be placed on an empty field of the document - it should partially cover the signature and certification.

Only if all these requirements are met will a copy of the work document be considered legally valid - until new entries are made to the original document.

Photocopy of the work book - what it looks like:

The employee refuses to pick up his work permit: what to do in this case

It happens that an employee who has been fired does not agree with management’s decision. As a protest, he flatly refuses to take away his work book. Or, for example, a person quit his job, but did not consider it necessary to take away his work permit. What should the management of the enterprise and the personnel specialist do in this case? For such situations, a specific algorithm of actions has been developed:

It is necessary to send a notification to the place of registration of the former employee with a request to pick up the work permit;
If the first point does not work, you can send the work book to the same address by a valuable letter with acknowledgment of receipt. True, if the employee did not give a written agreement in advance for such transfer, in case of conflict or controversial situations, he can use this fact against the employer;
You can transfer the work book to a former employee through his representative. However, the latter must present a notarized power of attorney to receive this document.

If, under any circumstances, the employee does not want to take away his work, this fact should be recorded in the appropriate act in writing and in the presence of witnesses. In the future, this will serve as evidence that the employer, for its part, did everything it could to transfer the work book into the hands of the former employee.

Making entries in the work book

According to the Instructions approved by the Resolution of the Ministry of Labor of October 10, 2003 No. 69, entries in the work book can be made in black, blue or purple ink with a fountain pen, gel or ballpoint pen. Abbreviations like “ex.” are not allowed. instead of “order”, “art.” instead of “article”, “TC” instead of “Labor Code”, etc. Dates are indicated in Arabic numerals in the format: day and month - two digits, year - four digits.

In the sections of the work book “Information about work” and “Information about awards” it is unacceptable to cross out inaccurate, incorrect or invalid entries. If necessary, after the last entry in the book, write “The entry for number such and such is invalid,” and then make the correct entry. If an entry in the work book about dismissal or transfer to another permanent job was declared invalid, then, upon a written application from the employee, he is given a duplicate work book without making such an entry in it.

When the person with whom the employment contract was concluded has already worked before, he brings a work book, the title page of which is completed. If the work book is filled out for the first time, it must be completed within a week.

Information about the employee on the title page is entered according to the following rules:

the surname, first name and patronymic are written in full, without initials, as indicated in the identity document;
information about education: general, secondary vocational, higher, postgraduate is entered on the basis of educational documents (certificate, certificate, diploma, etc.);
if the employee is still studying, then a record of incomplete education is made on the basis of a certificate from the educational institution, grade book, student card.

After entering this data and indicating the date of filling out the work book, the employee must certify with his signature on the title page the accuracy of the information about him, then the title page is signed by the person responsible for issuing work books and the seal of the organization or personnel service is affixed. A work book without a seal on the title page will be considered invalid.

Further changes to basic information about the employee are made on the basis of documents (passport, certificate of marriage or divorce, change of last name, first name, patronymic, etc.) with reference to their number and date. The previous surname, first name, patronymic, and date of birth are crossed out with one line and new data is written down. Links to the documents on the basis of which changes were made are written on the inside cover of the work book and certified by the signature of the employer or a person authorized by him and the seal of the organization (HR service). When adding records about education, profession, or specialty on the title page, the previous records are not crossed out, but only new ones are added. There is no need to make links to new educational documents on the internal page; this is not provided for by the rules.

When entering information about work, indicate the full and abbreviated name of the organization. Next, a record is made of employment in the employer’s structural unit, position (profession, specialty), as well as the date and number of the order or other decision by which the employee was hired.

The name of the position, specialty, profession must correspond to the employer's staffing table. If working conditions imply benefits or restrictions, then this name must be written as indicated in the qualification directories. An appropriate entry is made in the work book of an employee who, during the period of work, received a new rank (class, category) or a second profession (specialty, qualification).

When dismissing an employee , the date of dismissal, its reason and the name of the document on the basis of which the entry was made (order, instruction or other decision of the employer, its date and number) are recorded in the work book. If the dismissal occurs in the order of transfer to another permanent job with another employer, then you need to write down on what basis the transfer is made: at the request of the employee or with his consent. Then the next entry when hiring a new job will be made indicating that the employee has been accepted or appointed as a transfer.

Acquisition, accounting and storage of work books

Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated December 22, 2003 No. 117n approved the procedure for providing employers with work book forms and an insert for it. These documents are produced by the GOZNAK Association, so they have the appropriate degree of protection. The employer must have the required number of work book forms and inserts for them; the employee cannot be required to bring a new form himself, because Their legal sale is possible only under an agreement with an official distributor. The employer may not have many such forms, because usually people who already have work experience and, accordingly, an existing work record are hired.

You can buy legal work book forms and inserts from companies that sell stationery by requesting from them documents authorizing the sale of the forms. This must be a copy of the agreement with the GOZNAK Association itself or with the wholesaler from whom the company purchased the forms. Of course, you can’t buy work books somewhere in the subway or a newsstand. When issuing a new form to an employee, the employer can request reimbursement from him for the acquisition costs incurred.

Accounting for new forms is carried out in a special receipt and expenditure book and in a book for recording the movement of work books and inserts in them. The personnel employee who issues work books receives them upon written request from the accounting department, and at the end of the month submits a report on them and the amounts received for them from employees.

In the book of accounting for the movement of work books and inserts in them, records are kept not only on new forms, but also on all work books accepted from employees upon entering work. Work books are kept by the employer and issued to the employee only on the day of dismissal, i.e. on the day of termination of the employment contract.

Work books and inserts in them are documents of strict accountability, therefore they must be stored in safes, metal cabinets or other conditions that ensure their safety. The law does not prohibit handing out work books to employees, but the employer will be held responsible for loss.