Notice of termination of a fixed-term employment contract

Fixed-term employment contract

Most often, employment contracts concluded between an employer and an employee are of an open-ended nature. This means that they indicate only the first day of work of the employee at the enterprise. Such contracts can be terminated at any time, either at the initiative of the subordinate or at the will of the employer (in the second case, with mandatory justification and full compliance with the procedure established by law).

The situation is somewhat different with fixed-term employment contracts. Usually they are concluded for the execution of a specific task or work, which must be carried out within a strictly defined period.

They have an exact start and end date, i.e. they stipulate in advance a clear period of time during which the employee is obliged to perform his functions.

After the expiration of this period, the contract either terminates or is extended (extended).

It should be noted that the parties have every right to terminate their relationship even before the employee’s last day of work in the company.

To terminate a fixed-term employment contract with a subordinate, the employer is obliged to send him a corresponding written notice.

How much notice must be given to a conscript about dismissal?

The notice period depends on the conditions for termination of the contract, as well as on its duration.

If the termination of a fixed-term contract occurs while the employee is ill, then a notice of expiration is still sent to him, and the dismissal is formalized on the specified day. A fixed-term contract is not terminated only in one case, if the fixed-term contract is pregnant.

Women in this position cannot be fired until the end of pregnancy or until the end of maternity leave, if provided, and the employer is obliged to provide such leave to a pregnant conscript. If, for health reasons, a woman cannot continue to cope with the work that she performed under a fixed-term contract, then she needs to be offered other jobs where she will be healthy enough to perform her job duties.

A fixed-term contract with a pregnant woman is terminated only if the woman herself wants it, or she is not suitable for the position she occupies, and there are no other positions in the company for her (or the woman is not satisfied with them).

When should the employee be notified?

To notify an employee of the termination of a fixed-term employment contract, the law gives the employer three days before its expiration. The notice must not only indicate the date from which the employment relationship is terminated, but also indicate the reason for it.

You should also be sure to obtain the employee’s signature confirming that he has read the document - in the future, this autograph will indicate that all formalities upon dismissal of this employee were completed in full.

Is it necessary to issue a notice of dismissal for a conscript?

Article 79 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation clearly states that the employer is obliged to notify an employee working under a fixed-term employment contract about the upcoming termination of its validity.

Moreover, this must be done in writing. Usually a notice is drawn up and delivered personally to the employee.

It is important to send notice of dismissal in a timely manner and draw it up on paper. Neglect of these rules is a violation of labor laws.

A competent employee who knows the norms of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation will be able to refuse to resign due to the lack of notification of the termination of a fixed-term employment relationship or its untimely transfer to the employee.

To avoid possible disputes and conflicts with a fixed-term employee, you should draw up a notice in two copies - one to give to the worker, the second to keep for yourself, having first received the employee’s signature acknowledging the imminent termination of the employment contract.

A notice must be drawn up if the contract is concluded:

• for a limited specific period;
• for the season;
• for the period of performance of work;
• for the period of provision of services.

It is important to remember that the maximum period for a fixed-term relationship is 5 years.

It is not necessary to warn the employee if the contract was concluded during the absence of another permanent employee.

How many days in advance must an employee be notified?

Article 79 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation talks about the period of warning for a fixed-term employee to terminate the contract due to the expiration of its term - the conscript must be notified 3 calendar days in advance.

The employer can warn the employee earlier; the law does not prohibit advance notification of the termination of a fixed-term relationship.

In the case where a conscript is accepted to perform work or services, the contract is terminated upon completion, and there is also an obligation to notify the employee about this three days before termination of the agreement. Similar rules apply to contractual relationships concluded during the season, when the agreement is automatically terminated due to the end of the season.

If the contract is concluded during the absence of the main employee, then there are no restrictions on notifying the fixed-term employee.

Upon the departure of the main worker, the fixed-term agreement automatically terminates, and the temporary worker must resign on the same day.

How to notify about the termination of a fixed-term employment contract?

According to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the company management must warn the fixed-term employee about the expiration of the contract in writing.

The document is usually called a notice and is addressed personally to the person being dismissed.

It is better to hand over the notification form in person. If this is not possible, then you should send the document by mail in advance. The main thing is to maintain the required notice period, equal to three calendar days before the date of termination of the employment agreement.

A verbal warning is not sufficient. If the employer warns the employee about the expiration of the fixed-term contract verbally, then the employee on the day of dismissal may refuse to sign the dismissal order and will be right.

General information about the notification, features of its preparation

If you need to generate a notice of termination of a fixed-term employment contract, and you have no idea how to write it correctly, read our tips. Also look at the example document below - based on it you can easily create your own form.

Before going into detail about this particular notice, here is some general information that is common to all such documents.

First of all, keep in mind that there is currently no standard, unified form of notification. This means one thing: it can be drawn up either in free form or according to a template developed within the company (in this case, the form of the document must be approved in its accounting policy). The method of writing the notice must also be specified in the regulations of the enterprise.

The notification can be made on letterhead (if such a requirement is established by management) or on a simple plain sheet of paper (preferably A4 format). The document can be written by hand or typed on a computer (with further printing) - all these parameters do not matter.

The main thing is that the form is signed by the director or employee authorized to endorse such papers on his behalf.

There is no strict need to certify the notification with a seal - this should be done only when this norm is available in the local documents of the organization.

It is better to formulate the notification in two identical copies (if by hand, then using a carbon copy), one of which is sent to the employee, the second is left in the organization.

Also, information about the form must be entered in a special accounting journal - these should be available in every company.

How to notify an employee of termination of an employment contract?

The employer must notify the employee of the termination of the employment contract. Moreover, depending on the reason for termination, notification is given within a certain time frame.

By notification, the employer notifies the employee of the grounds for termination of the employment contract.

What if the employer does not notify the employee?

Important! If the employer ignores its obligation, the employee can easily be reinstated by a court decision with payment of all days of forced absence, moral damages and compensation.

In addition, the employer will be fined for violating labor laws (Article 5.27.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

The fines will be:

• for officials - from 1 thousand to 5 thousand rubles;
• for entrepreneurs - from 1 thousand to 5 thousand rubles;
• for companies - from 30 thousand to 50 thousand rubles.

The notice of termination of the contract must be signed by the head of the company or an authorized person. Otherwise, such notification may be considered improper with all the ensuing consequences.

Often the notice is given to the employee in one copy and the employer does not have any evidence of notifying the employee of the upcoming termination of the employment contract.

The notification must be drawn up in two copies. It is very important to ensure that a copy of the notice signed by the employee is returned to the company’s HR department. In addition to signing, the employee must indicate the date of familiarization with the notice.

This date is important to prevent employees from challenging the timing of the notice of termination of the employment contract.

In practice, situations are possible when an employee is illegally laid off while he is on sick leave. The employee was reinstated by court decision. But the employer's plans regarding layoffs have not changed.

Do I need to re-notify the employee about the layoff? After all, the employee had already been given notice.

The organization did not re-prepare documents regarding the redundant employee. And the employee went to court again. However, this time Themis was on the employer’s side.

Once the employee has been reinstated, the employment relationship returns to its original state, that is, the previously sent notice to the employee about the layoff remains valid.

Therefore, the court recognized the reduction as legal (Decision of the Gubakhinsky City Court of the Perm Territory dated 03/02/2021 No. 2-129/2021).

Sample notice of termination of a fixed-term employment contract

At the beginning of the document you should write:

• his name;
• number (in accordance with internal document flow);
• date(current);
• place (settlement) of compilation.

Then the following is entered into the main block:

• the actual notification that the employment relationship with the employee is being terminated;
• name of the company, position and full name of its director, as well as information about the employee;
• link to the article of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation justifying the employer’s actions;
• number and date of a fixed-term employment contract previously concluded with the employee;
• the date from which it ceases to be valid;
• the last day of work, as well as an offer to come to the personnel department for a work book and other documents.

In conclusion, it would not be amiss to remind the employee that before the employment contract terminates, he must continue his work in full.

At the end, the document is signed by the employer's representative.

Didn't pass the test

If in your case a new and promising employee does not pass the test, and you decide to part with him, then he must also be notified of this unpleasant event. What does the law say? And the law says that you must notify such an employee exactly three days before the date of his dismissal.

Draw up a document and give one copy to the employee for signature. In case of refusal, invite witnesses to record what happened.

Andrey Shilov, HR lawyer

Rules for issuing a notification

The notice can be drawn up in the form that is convenient for the originator. At the same time, the fact of the upcoming termination of the employment relationship due to the expiration of the fixed-term contract must be clearly clear from the contents of the notification paper.

The following details can be identified that are recommended to be included in the text of the notification paper:

• Information about the company (you can issue a notice on company-type letterhead);
• The position and full name of the conscript for whom the document is being prepared (this information can be shown in the upper right part of the form, where the details of the addressee of the document are usually indicated);
• Title of the paper and heading - you can specify any suitable phrase: “on the expiration of the employment contract.” “on termination of the employment contract” or other wording);
• Addressing the conscript by name and patronymic in a respectful manner, for example, “Dear Kirill Petrovich”;
• A warning that the contract with a certain number, concluded with an employee, is expiring, and therefore it will be terminated under clause 2, part 1, article 77 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, it is in this paragraph of the code that this basis is enshrined;
• The date of termination of the employment relationship is the day of dismissal, when the employee receives his work book and payment;
• Signature of an authorized person (director or other person authorized to certify such notification papers), it is not permitted to sign an information notice by an unauthorized person who does not have the right to certify such documentation;
• Introductory signature of the conscript.

If the employer can meet with the employee, then it is better to hand over the notice personally. The document can be in one copy - for the employer.

In this case, the employee is given the opportunity to familiarize himself with the contents of the notice, after which he is asked to sign in the designated place at the bottom of the document. If the employee needs a copy, a photocopy is made of the signed notice and given to the notified employee. In practice, two copies are usually drawn up at once, the employee will sign on one and give it to the employer, and the second will be taken for himself.

In these cases, the employer receives confirmation of the fulfillment of the obligation under the Labor Code of the Russian Federation - the employee is aware of the expiration of the period of validity of the employment contract with him. Postal notification is used in cases where there is no possibility of a personal meeting with the worker.

For example, when on sick leave or when performing work functions in a geographically different location. In this case, you need to prepare a notification paper in advance and send it by valuable letter to the conscript. In this case, you need to take into account the travel time; it will take several days until the employee receives the letter. In this case, it is recommended to send notice in advance, taking into account the delivery time.

Sample of filling out the notification: