Violation of labor laws by an employer: how to write a claim for non-payment of wages and illegal dismissal?

Conflict and controversial situations can arise wherever the interests of at least two people collide, and working relationships are no exception. One such case is a claim to an employer for violation of labor laws.

An employee in our time has the right not only to choose a work activity according to personal preferences, but also to defend his official interests in cases where the manager has treated him incorrectly or unlawfully. This article sets out the facts that allow an offended subordinate to make a claim to his superiors or complain to higher authorities.

How is salary paid upon dismissal?

If a worker has worked for a whole month, then he is required to be given his salary, the amount of which is equal to a certain salary.
The final payment upon dismissal of a subordinate must be made within a specific period of time. An employee's wages should not be paid on the days following the day of his dismissal. The day of dismissal is always the employee's last day of work.

But here, too, there are some nuances: if a worker, for example, was absent all day more often than present at the workplace. However, taking into account the legislation, the employee retains his position.

If it turns out that the subordinate did not show up at the workplace on the last working day, then payments of the due funds must be made no later than the next day after the employee’s demand that he be paid in full.

If it happens that the head of the organization and the subordinate cannot come to mutual agreement regarding the amount of money due, then the citizen can defend his rights in the labor inspectorate, or file a lawsuit to recover wages from his employer.

How quickly can you quit if your employer is late paying your salary?

Attention Good afternoon. I would like to address you with this question. How can I properly quit my job if my salary is delayed for 7 months? Which authorities should I contact and in what order should I do this? What documents and articles in these documents should you be guided by? Let me briefly explain my situation: my last salary was paid for January 2015. Then we had downtime at work. There was basically no work for about 3 months. To our questions about whether it was worth waiting for work and money, respectively, the director answered that everything would be fine and there was no need to quit. “I’ll pay you your salary, don’t worry,” he said. For 3 months I regularly went to work from call to call, but there was still no money or work. Around the beginning of May, work appeared and is still there to this day.

Cases of payment of settlement to an employee

If a manager does not pay wages to his subordinate upon dismissal, then he will bear one of the following responsibilities:

  • Administrative responsibility. If the manager is brought to administrative responsibility, then he faces a fine of up to five thousand rubles, as an individual, and as a legal entity - up to fifty thousand rubles.
  • Material liability. The manager must provide 1/300 of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation interest rate on the entire debt amount. This payment is made from the moment of dismissal to the actual settlement.
  • Criminal liability. The manager will bear this responsibility if he has not paid wages for three months. The manager may be disqualified, and the amount of the fine reaches one hundred and twenty thousand rubles. Forced labor and imprisonment for up to five years are also possible.

Based on the norms of existing labor legislation, the resigning employee’s salary is paid either on the date of his dismissal from the company, or on the day (but not later than the next day) when he demanded that his manager pay such a salary.

An employee can demand payment on a day other than the day of his dismissal if he was absent from his place of work on the date of his official dismissal.

In turn, absence from the workplace on the last working day must be valid, for example, due to vacation, sick leave or a day off in accordance with the schedule.

There are situations when the employee and the employer do not come to a common opinion regarding the amount of payments due to the employee and the situation can develop into a conflict.

At the very beginning of the difficult path of resolving a controversial situation, the least painful and more rational thing would be to appeal to the conscience and common sense of the employer.

In fact, in most cases, disagreements over employee benefits can be resolved this way.

If the employee and the manager fail to come to an understanding, then it makes sense to file a complaint with the trade union organization, labor inspectorate, prosecutorial authorities, or the court.

Simple verbal communication with the boss when resolving disagreements may not end in anything, for the reason that it is just communication.

After all, words that are not recorded on any storage medium remain just words.

In order for the agreement with the manager to be official, the employee must contact his boss in writing with the obligatory registration of his appeal.

In this case, the employer will be forced to give the same written response, which, in case of a negative result, will need to be attached to complaints to subsequent authorities.

The Labor Inspectorate is perhaps the most effective government body in resolving problematic situations involving non-payment of wages.

A written complaint is submitted to the inspectorate from an employee whose rights have been violated.

The complaint must indicate the full name of the organization, full name of the head, the essence of the appeal, the amount of the settlement to be paid, the period of non-payment, the date and signature of the person who applied.

Based on the results of its consideration, if a violation of labor legislation is revealed, the inspectorate will issue an appropriate order to the head of the enterprise with a requirement to repay the settlement debt and the deadline within which this must be done.

In addition, such a manager will be subject to administrative punishment in the form of a fine.

Contacting the prosecutor's office is carried out in the same written manner, either by mail with a return receipt requested, or by email on the website of a law enforcement agency.

The requirements for the complaint in this case are similar, so there is no need to write anything else here.

The complaint must be accompanied by a written response from the employer, if the employee has previously contacted him in writing. Prosecutor's response measures will be similar.

That is, when it is established that the organization is in debt, a prosecutorial response will be issued to the employee, with a requirement to pay the amount due with interest for the delay. After which, the manager will also have to pay a fine to the state.

Any employee can file a complaint about unpaid severance pay in court. This can be either a district court located on the territory of the employing organization, or a magistrate’s court serving the given area.

When filing a claim in court, it is important to know that a dismissed employee has the right to go to court no later than three months after his dismissal.

The employee can contact the judicial authorities and write a statement asking for a court order to be issued to him. Based on the court order, a writ of execution is prepared, which he then presents to his organization and receives payments.

The employee can also file a lawsuit for payment of the settlement. Judicial practice shows that filing a claim is more effective.

An employee can contact all of the above authorities either step by step or simultaneously; there are no legal prohibitions in this procedure.

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We talked above about the liability of a negligent employer in the event of a delay in paying the salary to a resigning employee, in accordance with labor legislation.

However, in addition to compensation for non-payment of due funds, the head of the enterprise may also incur criminal liability.

This applies to situations where payments due to an employee are delayed for more than three months.

Well, here we have looked at legal ways to resolve problems with non-payment of payments to dismissed employees.

An important note here is that only those workers who were officially employed at their place of work and received an official salary can count on the protection of their rights.

All other categories of workers with black and gray salaries will not be able to count on assistance from the state, since their earnings are partially or completely unofficial.

  1. Labour Inspectorate;
  2. Court;
  3. Prosecutor's office.

Required payments and compensations

If a subordinate quits of his own free will, then he is not entitled to such payments that will compensate for the loss of his job or will guarantee financial stability while the worker looks for another job.

Upon dismissal, an employee must be given severance pay, in accordance with the law (Article 178 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). This payment is made taking into account the actual time worked, but not yet paid, as well as the vacation due to the employee (whether spent or not). Therefore, it is necessary to make two options for cash payments:

  1. An employee's salary for the time he performed his job duties. A full salary is provided to an employee if he has worked for a full month. If the employee did not work until the end of the month, then the payment to him is calculated using the formula: official salary/sum of working days * actual days worked.
  2. Cash in the form of compensation for the vacation that the employee did not have time to spend. This accrual is carried out taking into account the employee’s average daily earnings for the previous year relative to the day of dismissal. This payment amount must be multiplied by the days of rest that the worker did not spend.

It is necessary to take into account some details when calculating payments for unused vacation:

  • If a citizen has unused vacations for more than one year, then in any case he will receive cash payments only for the previous two years and no more.
  • An employee can count on full payments for vacation if he has worked for eleven months out of the period for which the calculation is made.
  • If a worker has managed to take all of his required vacations, then he is not entitled to these payments. You need to know that if a worker used his last vacation in advance, and if he did not have time to work it, then the amount for these days off may be deducted from his final payments (Article 137 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).
  • In addition to the payments due to an employee by law, if he leaves of his own free will, he is required to accrue remuneration in accordance with local regulations, as well as other additional payments, which include the 13th salary. Such payments are made to the employee if they are due to him in accordance with certain documents.
  • Civil servants are entitled to additional pay for length of service, as well as for performing certain duties under specific circumstances. Accruals are calculated in accordance with legal regulations. Typically, the amount of cash accruals depends on the time the employee works.

It must be remembered that wages, as well as payments for unused vacations, are subject to taxation, which amounts to thirteen percent of the accrued payment.

Dismissal due to non-payment of wages on time under the contract

When downtime is not allowed In accordance with current legislation, if the employer has not paid only a certain part of the salary, then in this case the employee does not have any right to take advantage of the opportunity not to go to the workplace, since the above article states that this right is granted only in a situation where wages are delayed in full. In addition, the employee does not have the right to stop his work in the absence of payment of interest established in case of ignoring the accepted deadlines for calculating wages, since the specified interest, which is prescribed in Article 236 of the Labor Code, is not included in the salary itself, as a result of which they cannot be considered the employer's debt.

Contacting the labor inspectorate

Each region has its own labor inspectorate, the main activity of which is aimed at compliance with all standards in labor relations. If an employee’s rights have been violated (including in terms of payment of wages), he can file a complaint with the labor inspectorate of the region in which the violation occurred.

There are 3 ways to submit such a complaint - in person, by mail or through the website.

  1. On a personal visit. To do this, you need to fill out an application, as well as prepare a package of documents, and then take them to the inspection.
  2. Send a complaint by mail - registered mail with notification. This method is more convenient, but it will take much longer. In addition, there is a possibility of documents being lost during the transfer process.
  3. In electronic form through the official website onlineinspektsiya.rf. To do this you need:
  • go to the specified website;
  • select a problem category;
  • fill in information about the employee and employer;
  • provide information about what the problem is;
  • attach scanned copies of documents;
  • choose from the proposed options the actions that the applicant requests to take (organizing a verification of the facts stated in the application, bringing the perpetrators to administrative responsibility, or receiving written advice on this issue);

When filing a complaint, it is important that all data is real - otherwise, assistance to the applicant will be denied, since the inspectorate does not work with anonymous (or fictitious) data.

Within 30 calendar days, the inspectorate will review the application and then send a response to the applicant.

A standard package of documents that must be prepared before filing a complaint with the labor inspectorate:

  • Statement;
  • Order of appointment to a position (copy);
  • Employment contract (copy);
  • Work book (copy);
  • Passport (copy).

The application must indicate:

  • Data about both the employee and the employer;
  • State in detail the problem in connection with which the application is being submitted;
  • Put date and signature (with transcript);

The labor inspectorate, as well as other government agencies, have deadlines within which the application must be considered. In all of the above cases, the complaint must be considered by an authorized employee within 1 month from the date of its receipt. This period may be extended, but not by more than 30 days. If there is an extension of the deadline, the inspection is obliged to notify the applicant about this.

What actions will the inspection staff take after receiving a complaint?

After the employee’s application has been received by the inspectorate, it is transferred to the official (inspector) whose territory the employer belongs to. Next, the inspector verifies the facts specified in the complaint. If the information is confirmed, he issues an appropriate order and sets a period during which the employer is obliged to eliminate all identified violations.

What consequences does the detection of violations entail for the employer?

  1. Imposition of an administrative fine;
  2. Disqualification.

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All sanctions provided for in case of non-payment of wages are specified in Art. 145.1 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

Suspension of work due to non-payment of wages as a way to protect the employee

Info Please indicate the legal address of the company, your position and registered address. Describe the problem with non-payment of earnings, indicate the date of the last payment, the total amount of debt. Attach a copy of the agreement between you and the company, a copy of the sheets from the labor report, and a copy of the complaint to the company management (if submitted). Inspectorate employees are obliged to verify the violation of the employee’s rights, impose an administrative fine, and suspend the activities of the enterprise for 3 months.

How to contact the prosecutor's office The petition is written in free form. You can compile it while in the prosecutor’s office building, finding out the position and full name of the employee you want to contact, or send the package by mail.

How is salary paid upon dismissal?

Late payment in matters of labor relations is interpreted as a delay in payments due to employees of monetary rewards (salary, vacation pay).

Upon termination of the contract, the employer, in accordance with Article 140 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, is obliged to transfer to the dismissed or resigned employee the undistributed portion of the funds earned during the previous period.

If a subordinate did not have time to take his next vacation, then he is also due compensation for unused days.

If the civil rights of workers are violated, then this act should be reclassified as a delay in payment of wages, for which the employer can be held accountable, even criminally.

Any citizen has the right to independently choose whether to carry out labor activities on the basis of an employment contract or without it.

The presence or absence of this document does not exempt the employer from monetary payments by the employer to the dismissed employee.

Labor relations arise from the moment of taking on official duties, and not from the date of signing the papers. The regulations on labor relations are prescribed in Art. 61 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

If wages are not paid upon dismissal and the rights of workers have been violated, then the employee should first write a statement to the employer demanding payment of the required wages.

An appeal regarding non-payment must be registered at the reception desk and promptly transferred to an official.

After dismissal, it is recommended to write a statement demanding payment of arrears of wages in two copies. On the second document, put the following marks: incoming number and registration date.

If the employer fails to fulfill its obligations to pay wages and repay the debt, the former subordinate should contact the relevant authorities in order to assert civil rights.

Therefore, the complaint must indicate your intentions to complain to the appropriate authorities due to the delay.

In case of delays in wages, including dismissal, workers today are ready to help in various government agencies:

  • Labour Inspectorate;
  • Regional prosecutor's office;
  • District or regional court.

You can complain to any of the above authorities.

The state entrusts the above organizations with ensuring control over the implementation of regulations set out in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

Upon dismissal, the injured employee can send a statement or complaint about non-payment of wages to any legal body that will defend his violated rights.

It is this authority that should be contacted in case of non-payment of money upon dismissal, because it deals with problems related to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

Based on the received application for delayed wages, an audit will be initiated.

If violations are discovered on the part of the employer, resulting in a delay in due payments to the dismissed employee, he will be held accountable.

The complaint from the labor inspectorate indicates illegal actions on the part of the employer, who did not make a full settlement with the former employee upon dismissal and ignored the claim.

In the official application, you should indicate on what date the document was registered, and it is best to attach a copy of the second copy, which contains the corresponding marks.

A citizen can complain to the State Tax Inspectorate regarding non-payment of compensation upon dismissal at any time, but within the general civil statute of limitations.

You should write to the labor dispute committee no later than three months from the moment the precedent arose. The Labor Inspectorate will also provide assistance to the victim in court.

The appeal should indicate the amount of arrears of wages, as well as the amount of compensation due for payment in connection with the delay.

Calculate compensation for delayed wages using an online calculator.

You can also demand compensation for moral damage - how to do it correctly.

In the case where the employee only has a certificate of debt and nothing else, you can do the following.

  1. We wait for the expiration of the 15-day delay period and notify the employer of the termination of work in writing, as established by Art. 142 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
  2. Since the concept of “work off” does not exist in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, there is only a rule according to which an employee is obliged to notify his superiors two weeks in advance of his desire to resign, then we write a letter of resignation and ask to be fired in two weeks.

As a result, the employee stops working due to non-payment of wages and, in addition, his 14-day “work off” period begins to run. As a result, either the employee will be paid all debts to the company and he will decide to withdraw his application or wait until he is fired, or, if wages are not paid, he will in any case be able to quit after two weeks without actually working, and then collect the debts through the court .

According to Art. 21 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, an employee has the right to timely and full payment of wages in accordance with his qualifications, complexity of work, quantity and quality of work performed. The conditions for remuneration of an employee (including the size of the tariff rate or salary (official salary), additional payments, allowances and incentive payments) are mandatory for inclusion in the employment contract (Article 57 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

Salaries are paid at least every half month on the day established by the internal labor regulations, collective or labor agreement (Article 136 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

Let's consider the rights and obligations of the employee and the employer in a situation where the employer violated the agreed payment deadline.

If payment of wages is delayed for more than 15 days, employees have the right to suspend work. The employer should be notified of this in writing (Part 2 of Article 142 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). Suspension of work is permitted regardless of whether the delay occurred due to the fault of the employer or in the absence of it (clause 57 of the resolution of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation dated March 17, 2004 No. 2).

During the period of suspension of work, the employee may be absent from the workplace, but is obliged to return to work no later than the next working day after receiving written notification from the employer that the delayed salary will be paid on the day he returns to work (Parts 3 and 4 of Article 142 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation) .

The employer must pay the salary due to the employee, together with an amount of interest (cash compensation) in the amount of not less than 1/300 of the Bank of Russia refinancing rate in effect at that time on amounts not paid on time for each day of delay, starting from the next day after the established payment deadline up to and including the day of actual settlement.

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For your information

Leave without pay can be granted only at the request of employees for family reasons and other valid reasons (Article 128 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). Administrative leaves, as well as other forced leaves without pay at the initiative of the employer, are not provided for by labor legislation (clarification of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated June 27, 1996 No. 6).

If employees, through no fault of their own, cannot fulfill the duties stipulated in the employment agreements (contracts) concluded with them, the employer is obliged in accordance with Art. 157 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation to pay for downtime.

By the way

Organizations that have wage arrears are required to submit to the territorial bodies of Rosstat Form No. 3-F “Information on overdue wage arrears”, approved by Rosstat Order No. 138 dated July 15, 2009. The form is filled out as of the 1st day of each month .

Late payment of wages may become the basis for the application of criminal and administrative measures to the employer (Article 145.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

As a general rule, an employee has the right to terminate an employment contract by notifying the employer in writing no later than two weeks in advance. The calculation of the period begins from the next day after the employer receives the employee’s application for dismissal (Part 1 of Article 80 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). By agreement between the employee and the employer, the employment contract can be terminated even before the expiration of the notice period for dismissal.

If an employee quits due to the employer’s violation of labor legislation, local regulations, or the terms of a collective or employment contract, the employer must terminate the employment contract within the period specified in the employee’s application (Part 3 of Article 80 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). According to Art. 22 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, timely payment of wages is the responsibility of the employer.

- salary for the time actually worked in the month of dismissal;

- wage debts, taking into account those provided for in Art. 236 Labor Code of the Russian Federation percent;

— compensation for unused vacation (Article 127 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

According to Art. 140 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, to dismissed employees, all amounts due from the employer are paid on the day of dismissal. This is considered the last day of work (Article 84.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

If the employee did not work on the last working day, the corresponding amounts must be paid no later than the next day after the dismissed request for final payment is submitted.

Lack of funds from the employer is not a reason for violating the terms of payments established by Art. 140 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

If an employee has not received a salary upon dismissal, then he has the right to first file a pre-trial claim in the form of a statement and send it to the head of the organization. It must be taken into account that this can be done if the employee was registered under an employment contract.

If you were unable to get your due salary

, then the next step should be to file a lawsuit in court. In court it will be necessary to provide proof of the working relationship. Witness evidence, as well as important documents of the organization on which the employee’s signature will appear, can help with this.

Thus, the worker can obtain all legal payments, as well as interest for the period of delay.

Limitation periods

The period during which a person deceived by an employer can go to court to protect his rights is not unlimited. Labor laws clearly indicate the time limits within which you can file a claim to protect your rights.

The statute of limitations associated with proceedings regarding unpaid (or incompletely paid) wages
is exactly one year (Article 392 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).
This period is counted from the day when wages should have been paid in accordance with the PVTR (Internal Labor Regulations). In the event of dismissal of an employee, the limitation period begins to count from the day following the day of dismissal from the organization that did not pay wages upon dismissal.

Even if the statute of limitations has expired, the court is still obliged to accept the claim . However, the employer who is the defendant in the initiated process has the right to file a protest.

Then the court will consider the reasons for missing the statute of limitations and, if they are found unjustified , will deny the applicant’s claims for payment of arrears of wages.

Valid reasons include:

  • documented illness of the plaintiff or relatives that required care;
  • long business trip of the applicant;
  • inability to file a claim due to the fault of the defendant (change of legal address, company name, failure to provide the applicant with documents necessary to initiate litigation, etc.);
  • shift work that prevented filing a claim;
  • other reasons that prevented the employee from filing documents with the court.

If an organization mistakenly accrued a salary greater than what was required under the employment contract, and such an employee quit, having a debt to the company, it can also file a lawsuit.

As a rule, the employer initially offers to resolve the situation voluntarily. But here it is important to take into account that the maximum you can recover is no more than 20% of the erroneously accrued amount .

In addition, it is possible to withhold the debt from such an employee only if the employee himself agrees with this and is not going to challenge the situation.

Otherwise, the company will face legal proceedings, where it will act as a plaintiff.

Contacting the prosecutor's office

In addition to administrative liability, in case of non-payment of the payment, the employer may also be subject to criminal prosecution - Art. 145.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The sanctions of the article provide for various types of punishments, namely:

  • Imposition of a fine;
  • Deprivation of the right to hold certain positions;
  • Deprivation of the right to engage in a certain type of activity;
  • Forced labor;
  • Deprivation of liberty.

According to Article 20 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, this type of crime is classified as private-public - this means that a criminal case can be initiated at the request of the victim (employee), but even if the parties are reconciled, it does not stop - for this it is necessary to obtain permission from the prosecutor or the head of the investigation department.

  1. Name of the prosecutor's office (which district, city);
  2. Applicant details (full name, residential address, contact phone number);
  3. The content of the application for criminal prosecution is similar to the claim - all the circumstances are also described here;
  4. The list of documents attached to the application is also identical to the claim;
  5. In the petition part, it is necessary to express a request to initiate a criminal case.

All appeals must be considered within 30 days, but if additional verification of the specified facts is not required, then 15. Based on the results of the consideration, an appropriate decision must be made.

Persons responsible

If the facts specified by the applicant are confirmed, the head of the employing organization or an individual entrepreneur will bear responsibility.

Consideration of the case in court

When the investigation is completed and the indictment is signed, it is submitted for consideration to the magistrate (in accordance with Article 31 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation) of the area where the crime occurred. If all the necessary requirements are met: the magistrate accepts the case for proceedings, sets a date and time for consideration, an employee of the magistrate’s office (usually the secretary of the meeting, whose powers include this function according to the instructions for office work) notifies the persons involved in the case. If the defendant fails to appear, he may be forcibly brought in.

Based on the results of the consideration, a verdict is issued or a resolution to terminate the criminal case, against which persons participating in the case can file a complaint with a higher court, if they do not agree - a period of 10 days is provided for this. After which it will be possible to appeal only by reinstating the deadline, documenting the inability to file a complaint within the established period of time.

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