Issuance of a work book upon dismissal according to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation

The dismissal process is always unpleasant and requires clear action. A special point is the issuance of a work book upon dismissal, since this document contains all the basic data about the employee. The employer is obliged to issue the document and has no right to withhold it to the detriment of the former employee. Sometimes it happens that the manager threatens that he will not give the book back, or the employee refuses to pick it up himself because he does not agree with the dismissal.

The work book contains the entire history of a person’s working period; it will be needed in the future to calculate the length of service in the Pension Fund. Until the employment relationship ends, the employer must keep it, and upon termination of the employment contract, he must issue the document without hindrance on the last working day.

Dismissal implies the termination of all employment relations between the employee and the company and its management. The employee has the right to pick up his things and documents and finish his work in this organization.

Legislative regulations on the work book

The sample work book is legally established. The rules according to which work books are maintained, stored and issued are regulated by federal executive authorities, which are authorized to do so by the Government of the Russian Federation.

The legislative basis for handling work books is contained in the following acts:

Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated April 16, 2003 No. 225 “On work books” contains the rules for maintaining and storing this document, as well as samples of the necessary forms, features of their production and distribution among employers;
Art. 66 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation prescribes the use of the above-mentioned Rules No. 255 to resolve issues related to work books;
Art. 65 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation speaks of the obligatory presence of a labor contract for concluding an agreement between an employee and an employer;
Art. 80 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, dedicated to the issues of dismissal at the request of the employee, directly contains the rule on the issuance of employment and other documents related to his work on the last day in the service of the resigning employee upon presentation of a written application by the latter;
Art. 140 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation insists on the need for final settlement with the employee on the day of his dismissal, including regarding documents belonging to him, including the work book;
Art. 234 covers the responsibility of the employer in the event of a violation of the employee’s right to new employment, which is impossible without a work book, if it was not issued to the dismissed person on time, and Art. 237 speaks of the possibility of compensation for moral damage for such a violation.

What happens to the work record upon dismissal?

Legislative acts require the issuance of a work book with an entry on the termination of the employment contract to the dismissed employee on his last working day with this employer.

In some cases provided for by law, the date of dismissal is not considered the last day spent in service, but another date. This is possible if, for example, before dismissal, an employee was given previously unused vacation, after which he will be considered dismissed. In this situation, the last working day before the vacation will become the day of calculation and issuance of the work book, while the date of dismissal will be the last vacation day.

Entries made in the work book

The employer is obliged to issue the employee a work book that is properly executed. Upon dismissal, it is worth checking the following points of completion for compliance with the Rules for maintaining and storing work books:

each entry made in the book during the time of work for this employer must be certified by the signature of the superiors (responsible person);
Each signature must bear the seal of the organization or its human resources department;
The signature of the employee must also be present (except in cases where the book is not issued to him or he refuses to receive it);
records are formulated in the form prescribed by law;
the last entry should be a record of dismissal from this organization;
if the book was kept not only in the state language, but also in the regional one (of a republic that is part of the Russian Federation), then both texts must be certified accordingly.

NOTE! Correct wording is very important. If the previous employer made an entry “not according to the protocol”, and the subsequent one refused employment because of this, the court will side with the unfairly offended employee, which is fraught with the payment of serious compensation and compensation for lost earnings.

When an employer is released from liability for delay

The Labor Code stipulates that in some cases the employer is not responsible for the delay in issuing a work book.
In particular, part 6 of Art. 84.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation establishes two such cases: 1. If on the day of termination of the employment contract it is impossible to issue a work book to the employee. For example, he is absent from work or refuses to receive a book. In this case, the employer is obliged to send him a notice of the need to appear for a work book or agree to send it by mail. From the date of sending the notice, the employer is released from liability for the delay in issuing the work permit.

Let us note that the notification of the need to appear for a work book or to agree to send it by mail is an important document: you should not send a book by mail without the employee’s written consent to do so. Thus, compensation was recovered from the employer for the delay in issuing a work book, since it was not issued to the employee on the day of dismissal and without obtaining written consent from him, as required by Art. 84.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, it was sent by mail. The employer did not have evidence of issuing a work book to the employee upon dismissal, including against signature in the manner established by clause 41 of the Rules for maintaining and storing work books. As a result, the plaintiff’s demands for recovery of average earnings during the delay of the work book were satisfied (Appeal ruling of the Voronezh Regional Court dated July 29, 2014 No. 33‑3589).

2. If the last day of work does not coincide with the day of registration of termination of employment relations upon dismissal of an employee on the basis provided for in paragraphs. “a” clause 6, part 1, art. 81 (for absenteeism) or clause 4, part 1, art. 83 (conviction of an employee to punishment that precludes the continuation of previous work) of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, as well as upon dismissal of a woman whose employment contract was extended until the end of pregnancy or until the end of maternity leave in accordance with Part 2 of Art. 261 Labor Code of the Russian Federation. In these cases, upon a written request from an employee who has not received a work book after dismissal, the employer is obliged to issue it no later than three working days from the date of such request.

Who can get a work book

Usually, upon dismissal, the work book is given directly to the employee. In practice, there are circumstances permitted by law when the book can be:

issued to the person who received a power of attorney from the employee to receive the document;
given to a relative of the dismissed person;
sent by mail;
preserved by the employer in the manner prescribed by law.

Features of personal issuance

The procedure for obtaining a work record book is more labor-intensive for the employer than for the person resigning. It consists of several stages.

Filling. It must be fully completed by the day of dismissal, and consists of two important procedures:
entering the wording of dismissal.
Obtaining the employee’s signature in the required column of the personal card (indicating that he received the book in hand).

The employee has not received the book, what should I do?

If on the day of dismissal an employee does not show up to the HR department or his workplace or refuses to receive a work book, the employer needs to insure himself. The situation cannot be left to chance, otherwise a lawsuit may be filed due to the delay in issuing the work permit. The employer must:

draw up an act stating that the work book has not been issued to the employee (indicate the reason);
send the employee a written notification of the need to obtain a work book or agree to send it by mail.

Work book – by mail

Such an important document can only be forwarded with the written consent of its owner, that is, the employee. Such consent may be expressed:

in advance, when the employee asks in writing to send him his work report to the specified address due to the impossibility of appearing for it in person on time;
in response to a notice sent by the employer.

When will the book be given to relatives?

Close people of an employee can receive his work book only in one very sad case - dismissal due to death. To do this you need:

make an entry in the book about the termination of the employment relationship;
make sure of close family ties with the deceased, confirmed by documents (passport, marriage certificate, birth certificate, etc.);
receive a receipt from a relative for receipt of the work permit (in a simple form).

With the written consent of relatives, you can use postal services.

Explanations on the issue of sending a work book by mail abroad

Rostrud reports the following regarding the sending of documents outside the Russian Federation. It is prohibited to export or send by mail abroad not only work books, but also military ID cards, as well as identity cards. Moreover, reference is made to the norms of USSR Law No. 2261-1 of June 24, 1991. Today in the Russian Federation this legal document is applied to the extent that does not conflict with the existing regulatory framework of Russian legislation.

It is noteworthy that this norm is enshrined in paragraph 3 of Order of the USSR Customs Committee No. 117 of September 30, 1991. The State Customs Committee of the Russian Federation draws attention to this (letter No. 01-06/50275 dated December 18, 2002).

Following the requirements of USSR law, when leaving for permanent residence in another country, a Russian must submit the listed documents to the relevant organizations. The owner of the documents, taking into account the data contained in them, is issued certificates of a certain type. So, on the basis of the work book, an extract is issued with the necessary information about the length of service.

According to Rostrud, this norm does not contradict current legislation, and therefore can be applied in the Russian Federation. It follows from this that the employer is not obliged to send the employee’s work at his request outside of Russia. In fact, it will be impossible to do this, since the post office has the right to refuse shipment, citing a ban.

Considering the above, it is recommended in such situations to leave the work record in the custody of the employer. It is allowed, with the employee’s permission, to send a work book to a relative from the Russian Federation at the address specified by him.

Thus, in fact, the employer still has only one option. The dismissed employee should be sent a notice with an order to appear for the work report or to agree to have it sent to a Russian postal address.

For information, the request for documents on education, experience and other documents specified by law is carried out upon a written request from Russians (foreigners, stateless persons) in accordance with Federal Law No. 154-FZ of 07/05/2010 “Consular Charter of the Russian Federation” (as amended on 12/29/2017).

The procedure for issuing a work book upon dismissal of an employee according to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation

An employer does not have the right to release a former subordinate with a book in which the appropriate entries have not been made. According to Art. 66 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, he is obliged to make entries related to changes in the position or personal data of the employee. Without this information, there will be no point in the book itself and its storage at the workplace. Also, in the absence of this information, problems may arise with the calculation and accrual of the employee’s pension.

The procedure for dismissal and receipt of a book is as follows:

Drawing up a statement to a subordinate if he resigns of his own free will.
If the dismissal occurs at the initiative of the manager, then a special act is drawn up.
The management is obliged to read the application and approve the employee’s decision.
After writing the application, a two-week work period must follow.
On the last working day in the work record book, the manager or an authorized person (usually a personnel employee) makes an entry and endorses it with his signature and company seal.
The employee can receive his document along with all payments due upon dismissal.

So, a record of dismissal is made in the work book on the last working day (Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation of April 16, 2003 No. 225). It should contain the following points:

Serial number of the record.
Date of dismissal in the format dd.mm.yyyy.
Grounds for termination of the contract. We remember that words are written in full, without using any abbreviations. A reference to the number, paragraph, part of the article of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation is required.
Order details without abbreviations.
Signatures of the authorized employee or manager and the dismissed employee. The company's seal certifying the entry made.

Until an entry is made into the employment record, it cannot be issued to the dismissed employee.

Dates for issuing the book

According to Art. 84.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the calculation and issuance of labor records takes place on the employee’s last working day. There are situations when an employee does not go to work on the day of dismissal, for example, if he got sick or refused to come and pick up his work package that day.

In this case, a notice is sent to the dismissed employee with a request to pick up the document or agree to send the book by mail. From the moment the notification is sent, the manager ceases to be responsible for the delay of the book.

If the employee, having received the notice, applied for a work book, the employer must return it no later than 3 working days.

The document can be sent to the dismissed employee by mail if he has given his consent and written an application for forwarding the document.

In the event of the death of an employee, his relatives can receive a work permit by providing documents to confirm the relationship. If no one applies for the book, then the manager is obliged to keep it until required.

Consent to shipment

Consent to send a work book by mail is another type of document that is responsible for transferring the work book into the hands of the employee. One way or another, if there is no need to draw up an application, then you can use simple consent to such a shipment.

Consent is written in the form of a receipt , that is, the employee’s passport data is entered and a phrase is written stating that he agrees to the forwarding of the work. The receipt is also certified by the seal of the organization and the signature of the employer.

Notification letter

Sending a letter notifying an employee’s work record by mail is a fairly wise step, because this way you will always know where the message you sent is located, and if the employee receives it, you will be the first to be notified about it.
You need to choose to send it in the form of a notification letter, and also evaluate the value of the letter so that it is sent with special care in the mail. To do this, you will need to pay the cost of the valuable letter and the notification letter.

As a rule, if the employee receives a letter addressed to you, they will receive a notification that the action has been taken. Even if an unscrupulous employee wants to sue you and claim that you have lost his employment, you can submit a notice as proof.

If the letter comes back to you, ask the post office to draw up a document that will indicate the route of the letter with all the dates, and also put the stamp of the post office.

Sample notification (application) for the return of a work book by mail upon dismissal.

Issuance of a work book by proxy

A work book, like many other documents, can be issued not only personally, but also to an authorized person, if the relevant powers are properly formalized. This implies the proper execution of a power of attorney - a document delegating certain powers, in this case, obtaining a work book, to a specified person. This happens in cases, for example, when an employee is physically unable to pick up a document.

The power of attorney must be written in the form prescribed by law and certified by a notary.

Important! A power of attorney may be considered invalid if it does not bear the date of its preparation.

Without a date, it is impossible to determine whether a document has legal force. If the power of attorney is written without indicating its validity period, it is considered to be 1 year.

A properly executed power of attorney must contain the following information:

The date of creation, as well as the place of drawing up, so that it is clear where and how the power of attorney will operate when its terms of office expire.
Entered passport details of the owner and labor. Initials, date of birth and place of residence must be indicated without errors. This point is strictly checked when issuing a work book at the place of work.
Data of the authorized person according to his passport. The information will also be checked, and the company will make a record of who exactly took the former employee’s work book.
Powers of a trustee. It is important to indicate what it has the right to, for example: check the presence of all the necessary entries in the document, take the work book with you, collect the salary, etc.
Sample signature of the person who will act on behalf of the former worker.
The principal must sign this document to certify its authenticity.

After receiving the work book, the attorney must write a receipt to the HR department employee or other authorized person confirming receipt of the document.

IMPORTANT! When receiving a work book by power of attorney, the personnel officer who issued the document must make a note with reference to the power of attorney in the personal card and the statement of the dynamics of work books.

Not all employers agree to issue employment documents by power of attorney, since the law does not specify such a method in relation to this type of document. You can refer to Art. 185 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, which specifies the general provisions on the power of attorney. If you cannot obtain the consent of the manager, then you can agree to receive the work book by mail.

When a work book is sent without consent

In life, situations periodically arise that require the employer to fulfill the obligations assigned to him regarding the full financial and documentary settlement with the dismissed employee. And in some situations you have to take the initiative and send the document through the post office to the home address of the fired worker.

This is possible in the following cases:

the dismissed worker categorically refused to pick up the papers and book due to him on the day he completed his work;
the dismissal of a citizen was carried out on the initiative of the administration, and the employee refuses to sign and collect his documents;
when the employer knows the home address of the resigned citizen, at the time of dismissal he was absent from the workplace and does not want to write anything (consent to send documents by mail).

It must be taken into account that a work book is an official accounting document.
Therefore, it must be sent to the owner according to clear rules. Sending must be carried out exclusively by a valuable letter, inside of which an inventory is included. It is necessary to describe all the contents carefully so that in the future there is no possibility of accusing this employer of negligence when working with documents. Before sending such a letter, the HR department will have to complete some preparatory steps:

Compose a written address notice to the dismissed employee about the need to come pick up the work book in person or send your written application with permission to forward it.
In the presence of at least 3 persons, draw up a report stating that the employee refused to pick up the document in person and did not want to send a written application to the HR department for forwarding.
Sending an envelope with official papers (there must be a valuable letter with an inventory and a response notification).
Receiving a return notification that the document has been successfully delivered to the owner. This will be the basis for considering that the dismissal of the worker and the settlement have been completed in full.

Sending official materials without consent is allowed only when the former worker, for some reason, refused to independently pick up the work book from the personnel department.

Example of a power of attorney

POWER OF ATTORNEY to receive a work record book

Yekaterinburg city

the eleventh of February two thousand seventeen

I, Antonina Rostislavovna Perestukina, born on October 14, 1978, passport 20 11 No. 452678, issued by the Department of the Federal Tax Service of Russia for the Moscow Region in Pushkino on July 14, 2000, living at the address: Ekaterinburg, st. Academician Postovsky, 18, apt. 134, by this power of attorney

I AUTHORIZE

Maxim Anatolyevich Zheleznyakov, born on August 18, 1980, passport 20 11 No. 967389, issued by the Department of the Federal Tax Service of Russia for the Moscow Region in Kolomna on January 29, 2004, residing at the address: Ekaterinburg, st. Bauman, 24, apt. 91:

obtain from the HR department of the limited liability company “Felicita” (Ekaterinburg, Vasily Eremina St., 12, office 2) the work book that belongs to me;
ensure proper execution and entry of records formulated in accordance with the law;
perform other necessary actions related to this instruction.

This power of attorney has been issued for a period of three months without the right of substitution.

Principal /Prestukina/ Perestukina Antonina Rostislavovna

On February eleventh, two thousand and seventeen, this power of attorney was certified by me, Anton Stepanovich Dobrodeev, a notary of the city of Yekaterinburg. This power of attorney was signed by the principal in my presence. Personality gr. Perestukina A.R. established, capacity verified.

Notary /Dobrodeev/ A.S.Dobrodeev

M.P.

Application methods

In accordance with Article 80 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, an employee who decides to quit must notify the employer in writing of his intention at least two weeks in advance. There are several ways to do this:

Take the relevant request personally to the manager or the HR department.
Send your resignation letter by mail to your employer. In this case, it must be sent to the organization by registered mail with notification. It is advisable that the applicant fill out an inventory of the attachment in order to avoid disagreements regarding the contents of the letter. The procedure for receiving, processing and delivering registered letters is determined by Order No. 234 of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation dated July 31, 2014.
Send a telegram. In accordance with the order of the Ministry of Information and Communications of the Russian Federation dated September 11, 2007 No. 108, to compile it you will need:
application form, the content of which must fully correspond to the text of the telegram.

The operator receiving the telegram puts an o on it, thereby confirming the correspondence of the text and the sender’s signature.

Write to an email address, be sure to confirm the letter with an electronic digital signature. In accordance with the content of Federal Law No. 63 dated 04/06/2011, an electronic document, properly executed, has the same legal force as its paper equivalent.

Sample application

The fact that an employee has the right to resign remotely is evidenced not only by the absence of a direct prohibition in labor legislation, but also by the content of the letter of Rostrud dated 09/05/2006 No. 1551-6 and judicial practice: Appeal ruling of the Moscow City Court dated 10/18/2016 No. 33–41424/ 2016 and Rostov Regional Court dated July 1, 2014 No. 33-8091/2014).

Responsibility for delay in issuing labor

There are unscrupulous employers who do not comply with the law, who blackmail their subordinates, intimidate them by not issuing a work book, and retain an important document without having any rights. These actions will lead to the fact that the resigning citizen will lose the document in which his length of service is recorded. He may also have difficulty finding a new job.

An employee who has suffered from such actions has the right to file a lawsuit against the employer, which may include the very fact of threats on his part regarding the withholding of a document without good reason. Upon consideration of the complaint, the manager will be forced to return the document with the relevant records. In addition, it may be recognized that the dismissal was outside the scope of the law if the employee did not leave his position of his own free will. Then he will be reinstated to work in the company where he was registered. The manager will have to compensate the employee for material and moral damage, as well as reimburse all legal expenses if the court makes such a decision.

Attention! If the employer delays issuing the work permit for a long time, then administrative liability is established by law.

The longer the manager delays issuing the document, the more he will have to pay. According to Art. 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offences, the fine can be set in the following amounts:

Officials - 1000-5000 rubles.
Entrepreneurs without legal entity formation - 1000-5000 rubles. or suspension of activities for up to 90 days.
Legal entities - 30,000-50,000 rubles. or suspension of activities for 90 days.