Special assessment of working conditions: procedure, frequency in 2022

Explanation of the abbreviation SOUT

The term “special assessment” appeared several years ago.
It is used along with others: special assessment of jobs, assessment of working conditions, etc. They mean the same thing - a set of mandatory measures for a special assessment of working conditions (SOUT). The legislative definition of the concept is presented in the figure:

We explain complex legislative terms in clear language:

effective income tax rate;
subordination code in form 4-FSS;
Personal Information.

REQUIREMENTS FOR EXPERTS

9. Order of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated January 24, 2014 No. 32n (as amended on July 25, 2016) “On approval of the form of an expert certificate for the right to perform work on a special assessment of working conditions, technical requirements for it, instructions for filling out the form of an expert certificate for the right to perform work on a special assessment of working conditions and the Procedure for the formation and maintenance of a register of experts from organizations conducting a special assessment of working conditions"

10. Order of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated July 25, 2014 No. 482 (as amended on August 17, 2015) “On organizing work to conduct remote testing of persons applying for an expert certificate for the right to perform work on a special assessment of working conditions.” The document is not registered with the Ministry of Justice

11. Order of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated 08/29/2014 No. 568 (as amended on 04/09/2015, 08/17/2015, 07/05/2016) “On the Commission for the consideration of appeals against the results of certification for the right to perform work on a special assessment of working conditions” The document is not registered in Ministry of Justice.

12. Order of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated April 29, 2015 No. 258n (as amended on June 20, 2016) “On approval of the Administrative Regulations for the provision by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation of state services for certification for the right to perform work on a special assessment of working conditions and the issuance as a result of it conducting an expert certificate for the right to perform work on a special assessment of working conditions"

Who is required to do what during a special assessment?

For employers, the appraiser company and employees in the SOUT procedure - a special assessment of working conditions, personal sets of rights and responsibilities are provided:

What is a special assessment

A special assessment of working conditions (Federal Law No. 426-FZ) is an analysis of the working conditions of employees at a specific employer, carried out by a special organization at certain workplaces. The procedure is carried out by a special organization in order to:

establish the presence of harmful conditions that are dangerous to human health, that is, those that lead to employee illness or injury (Article 209 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation);
assess the degree of their influence on the employee;
determine the magnitude of deviation from the norm;
establish the degree of effectiveness of the PPE and collective protective equipment used.

Based on the results of the SOUT, classes of working conditions at a specific place are determined (Part 2 of Article 3 426-FZ):

optimal;
acceptable;
harmful;
dangerous.

In the future, the class established for the workplace depends on:

tariff of insurance contributions paid by the employer to the Pension Fund for the benefit of employees: better conditions - lower contribution;
guarantees and compensation for employees in hazardous, hazardous work (additional leave - Article 117 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, reduction of working hours - Article 92 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, increase in salary - Article 147 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

In general, improved working conditions lead to reduced costs for the employer.

Sequencing

In order to conduct an SOUT in accordance with all legal requirements, you should carefully study the legislative norms. All special assessment activities can be arranged in three stages:

Preparatory stage

Before experts begin studying and assessing dangerous and harmful production factors, the employer and the appraiser company are required to fulfill their set of responsibilities:

Main stage

At this stage, the appraiser company carries out a set of special appraisal activities using a special methodology.

The nuances of the work of the appraiser company’s experts:

After completion of all studies and assessments, working conditions in terms of the degree of harmfulness and (or) danger are assigned to certain classes (subclasses).

To arrive at a final assessment of working conditions, the entire set of factors is taken into account:

The results of the activities carried out are reflected in the report, which is approved by the chairman of the SOUT commission after all its members have signed it.

The final stage

The employer has a lot of troubles at this stage:

The appraiser company is legally limited in terms of:

Employees whose working conditions are considered dangerous or harmful under the terms of a special assessment must undergo regular preventive medical examinations (Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Russia, Ministry of Health of Russia dated December 31, 2020 No. 988n/1420n).

How often is SOUT carried out?

Depending on what type of special assessment is being carried out—regular or unscheduled—different deadlines are provided.

In general, a special assessment of working conditions is carried out at the workplace at least once every five years (Clause 4, Article 8 of Law No. 426-FZ).

Nuances of calculating the period:

An unscheduled special assessment is carried out within the following periods:

Find out more about the deadlines:

conducting a desk tax audit;
provision of sick leave to the employer;
storage of documents according to the nomenclature of cases.

How to save on special assessments

If no harmful and (or) dangerous factors are identified at the workplace after a special assessment, the employer submits a declaration of compliance with working conditions to the labor inspectorate. Term - no later than 30 working days from the date of approval of the report on the special assessment of working conditions (Part 1, Article 11 of Law No. 426-FZ, Clause 5 of the Procedure approved by Order of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Russia dated 02/07/2014 No. 80n).

Filling out the SOUT declaration has many nuances; making mistakes when preparing this document is highly undesirable. Check out the finished sample declaration in the ConsultantPlus reference and legal system, having received trial access to it.

PLEASE NOTE! From March 1, 2022, a new procedure for declaring compliance with working conditions, approved by Order of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated June 17, 2021 No. 406n, comes into force.

Information on the results of a special assessment in relation to workplaces, the working conditions of which are declared as complying with state regulatory requirements, is transferred by the appraiser company to the FSIS SOUT (Part 1, Article 18 of Law No. 426-FZ).

The employer has the right to reduce the number of special assessments carried out in relation to such jobs if the following conditions are met:

Fulfillment of these conditions allows you to automatically extend the validity period of the declaration and shift the date of the next assessment of the workplace for working conditions by another five years. In this case, no additional documents are required (letter of the Ministry of Labor dated August 30, 2019 No. 15-1/ОOG-1968).

Direct savings when conducting a special assessment is the inclusion of the costs of its implementation in expenses that reduce the tax base. The possibility of appropriate inclusion is even available in the simplified form - in a recent article we talked about how to use it (along with the use of other grounds for reducing the amount of tax).

Find out where you can legally save money, and when it’s dangerous to do so:

“What are the possibilities for optimizing taxes under the simplified tax system”;
“Business fragmentation: where is legitimate optimization, and where is tax evasion?”;
“Investment tax deduction is a new opportunity to optimize income tax.”

Errors and violations made during the implementation of SOUT

Listed below are the most common mistakes made by employers and appraisers when conducting special assessments:

Employer mistakes.

Due to the special assessment, the employer may be punished by labor inspectors. It's all about the numerous requirements that the law imposes on this procedure.

Let's name the most common violations of employers during the implementation of SOUT:

Item no.	Type of violation	What legal norm has been violated?
1	The employer did not organize a planned special assessment	A special assessment is carried out at least once every 5 years, unless otherwise established by this law (clause 4 of article 8 of the Law of December 28, 2013 No. 426-FZ “On special assessment of working conditions”)
2	The employer did not organize an unscheduled special assessment	In a number of cases, the law obliges employers to carry out unscheduled SOUT (Article 17 of Law No. 426-FZ). For example, when changing the technological process, replacing production equipment, which can affect the level of exposure to harmful and (or) hazardous production factors on workers, etc.
3	SOUT was carried out by a company that does not have the appropriate accreditation (the special assessment report is invalid)	The requirements for such companies are specified in Art. 19 of Law No. 426-FZ. The list of companies authorized to carry out SOUT is posted on the website of the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation
4	The employer did not familiarize the employees with the results of the SOUT	The employer is given 30 calendar days from the date of approval of the SAW report to familiarize employees with the results of the assessment of their jobs. It does not include periods of temporary incapacity for work of the employee, being on vacation or a business trip, periods of rest between shifts (Clause 5 of Article 15 of Law No. 426-FZ)
5	The procedure for conducting a special assessment has not been followed (the results of the special assessment may be considered invalid)	The methodology for conducting a special assessment and the Classifier of harmful and (or) hazardous production factors, the form of the report on the implementation of the SOUT and instructions for filling it out were approved by Order of the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation dated January 24, 2014 No. 33n
6	Incorrect application of special assessment results	When providing compensation for work in harmful and (or) dangerous conditions, one cannot be guided solely by the results of a special assessment of workplaces. It is necessary to take into account the requirements of other legal acts of the Russian Federation (for example, the right to additional leave “for harmfulness” for medical workers of psychiatric medical institutions does not depend on the class of working conditions established based on the results of the special labor assessment, which is provided for other employees of medical organizations in accordance with paragraph 4, part 1 Article 22 of Law No. 3185-1)
7	The employer did not involve representatives of the trade union organization to participate in the special assessment procedure	If the company has a trade union or other representative body of workers, its representative must be included in the commission for conducting special labor assessment (part 2 of article 9 of Law No. 426-FZ)
8	The employer did not inform employees about the date of the special assessment, and they were unable to be present during it.	An employee has the right to be present during a special assessment at his workplace (Part 1, Article 5 of Law No. 426-FZ)
9	The employer did not take into account the suggestions of employees when identifying potentially harmful or dangerous production factors	The employee has the right to contact the employer, his representative, the organization conducting the special assessment, the expert of the organization conducting the special assessment with proposals for identifying potentially harmful and (or) dangerous production factors at his workplace and for obtaining clarification on the issues of conducting a special assessment of working conditions at work. his workplace (Article 5 of Law No. 426-FZ)
10	The special assessment commission did not identify all the harmful factors that affect employees	Identification of potentially harmful and (or) dangerous production factors in the workplace is carried out by an expert from the appraiser company. The results of identification of potentially harmful and (or) dangerous production factors are approved by the commission (Part 2 of Article 10 of Law No. 426-FZ)

For an employer, a special assessment carried out with violations can result in a whole set of negative consequences - legal proceedings (if employees go to court to invalidate the results of the special assessment system), unscheduled visits by inspectors, examination of the special assessment system and other unexpected and not very pleasant events and unplanned expenses.

Let us note that the claims of workers and inspectors against the employer based on the results of special labor assessment, as judicial practice shows, are not always justified (see Decision of the Rebrikhinsky District Court of the Altai Territory dated January 14, 2019 in case No. 2A-14/2019, Appeal ruling of the Chelyabinsk Regional Court dated 04/16/2018 in case No. 11-5344/2018).

Violations of the appraiser company.

It would be useful for the employer to become familiar with the mistakes that the appraiser company’s experts make in practice. Due to these errors, the results of the special assessment may be challenged and/or canceled:

Knowing about these shortcomings, the employer, when drawing up an agreement for the provision of services for carrying out special assessment and assessment work, can provide for separate conditions that will help avoid negative consequences due to errors made by the appraiser. In particular, it is possible to stipulate in the contract the procedure for the appraiser company to compensate the employer for losses incurred during a re-special assessment if the results of the special assessment are subsequently declared invalid due to violations committed by the appraiser company’s experts.

How are SOUTH and occupational safety related?

All employees, according to labor legislation, have the right to jobs that comply with state regulatory labor protection requirements.

Occupational safety is a system for preserving the life and health of workers during work, which includes the following activities:

In order for the employer to have official confirmation, based on special expert research and assessments, that workplaces comply with labor protection requirements, a set of measures called SOUTH is applied.

The results of a special assessment of working conditions are used by the employer to develop and implement measures aimed at improving the working conditions of employees, providing them with personal protective equipment and other measures.

A special assessment is the main tool when an employer decides on providing an employee with compensation and guarantees in connection with work in harmful and (or) dangerous working conditions - increased wages, reduced working hours, annual paid additional leave, etc.

All these measures are aimed at reducing the negative impact on health of harmful and (or) dangerous factors in the working environment and the labor process.

QUALITY EXAMINATION

23. Order of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated October 09, 2014 No. 682n (as amended on July 22, 2015) “On approval of methodological recommendations for determining the amount of fees for conducting an examination of the quality of a special assessment of working conditions.” The document is not registered with the Ministry of Justice

24. Order of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated August 12, 2014 No. 549n (as amended on November 14, 2016) “On approval of the Procedure for conducting state examination of working conditions”

25. Order of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated 07/08/2016 No. 350n “On approval of the Administrative Regulations for the consideration of disagreements on the issues of conducting an examination of the quality of a special assessment of working conditions, disagreement with the results of an examination of the quality of a special assessment of working conditions”

26. Order of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated 09/08/2016 No. 501n “On approval of the Procedure for considering disagreements regarding the examination of the quality of a special assessment of working conditions, disagreement of employees, trade unions, their associations, other representative bodies authorized by employees, employers, their associations, insurers, territorial bodies of the federal executive body authorized to conduct federal state supervision over compliance with labor legislation and other regulatory legal acts containing labor law norms, with the results of an examination of the quality of a special assessment of working conditions"

27. Order of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated December 5, 2016 No. 709n “Administrative regulations for the provision by the Federal Service for Labor and Employment of public services for the consideration of disagreements regarding the conduct of a special assessment of working conditions, the employee’s disagreement with the results of a special assessment of working conditions at his workplace, as well as complaints from employers about the actions (inaction) of the organization conducting a special assessment of working conditions"

What will they be punished for?

Those employers who do not organize the implementation of SOUT or do so in violation of the legally established procedure will inevitably face punishment.

Fines:

Employers in 2022 are under double control - for failure to carry out labor inspection work or violation of the procedure for its implementation, fines will be assessed not only based on the results of inspections carried out by labor inspectors, but also automatically.

The FSIS SOUT system will identify violators by comparing data from different sources with the information available in the system. For example, the program will compare data on the registration period of employers with data on the special assessment they conducted. If more than a year has passed since the company was registered, and the system has not received data on the special assessment, an automatic fine will follow for failure to carry out the special assessment.

ConsultantPlus specialists have prepared for you detailed step-by-step instructions for conducting a special assessment of working conditions, taking into account all legal requirements for this procedure. You can quickly familiarize yourself with this material by getting trial access to this reference and legal system.

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Results

SOUT is a set of measures for a special assessment of working conditions, during which dangerous and (or) harmful factors in the production environment and the labor process are identified, and the level of their impact on workers is assessed.

Experts of the appraiser company carry out procedures within the framework of the special assessment system using special methods using approved, certified and verified measuring instruments. The result of their work is documented in a report.

Based on the results of the SOUT, the employer develops and implements measures to mitigate the negative impact of production factors on the health of employees.

Conducting special safety and health measures is only part of the responsibilities of a modern employer in the field of labor protection. You can learn more about others that are equally significant in the special material prepared by our specialists.

Sources:

Labor Code of the Russian Federation
Federal Law “On Special Assessment of Working Conditions” dated December 28, 2013 No. 426-FZ
Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated April 12, 2011 No. 302n

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

When to carry out a special assessment of working conditions

The results of the special assessment, as well as the previously conducted workplace certification, are valid for five years. If the employer has already carried out certification of workplaces before the end of 2013, then until its validity period has expired, there is no need to conduct a special assessment of these places. At the same time, for new jobs, in addition to certified ones, this will need to be done within six months.

If the employer has not carried out workplace certification, then the special assessment can be carried out in stages, the main thing is to complete it no later than December 31, 2022 (Article 27 (6) of the law of December 28, 2013 N 426-FZ). True, it is only possible to delay its implementation for so long for those jobs that are not “harmful” (they are not included in lists No. 1 and No. 2 with early retirement and do not offer guarantees and compensation for work under harmful and dangerous conditions).