The labor legislation enshrines the full and limited liability of the employee. In any of these cases, the employee who committed unlawful acts / omissions is obliged to compensate for the damage that has occurred. Next, we consider what the limited liability of a worker is limited to .
General information
The employee’s limited liability for damage involves compensation only for direct real harm, unless otherwise provided by law or an employment agreement. The amount of compensation for damage may not exceed the average monthly earnings. These limits of the employee's limited liability are enshrined in article 241 of the Labor Code.
Terms
The employee's limited liability for damage caused to the property of the enterprise arises if it occurs:
- In the process of the employee performing his professional tasks.
- Due to negligence or lack of due diligence (through negligence).
If the guilty acts / omissions were committed with intent or the harm arose in connection with the person's non-fulfillment of his duties, then full responsibility arises. Its limits are fixed in article 243 of the Labor Code.
Nuances
The essence of the employee ’s limited liability is that actual damage is compensated. In this case, the amount of compensation may not be higher than the amount prescribed by law for deduction from an employee.
If the total amount of losses is higher than the fixed limits, then the employee may be required to fully compensate for the losses.
Cases of limited liability of employees
In practice, the most common cases of imputing an employee with an obligation to compensate for damage within the limits of his average monthly earnings are:
- Payment by the employer of a fine for the employee (if, due to the fault of the employee, the enterprise was sanctioned).
- Corruption of values transferred to a person to perform professional tasks.
- Loss of documents that cannot be restored within a certain period of time, which causes real damage.
- Violation of the procedure for compiling documents, entailing the inability of the employer to conduct activities in full.
The employee’s limited liability for property damage involves compensation for repair costs and restoration of damaged property. For example, by negligence or negligence of an employee, the machine failed. Its repair is carried out at the expense of the employer. However, due to the fact that the employee is guilty of a breakdown, the corresponding amount is deducted from his salary.
Pin to local documents
To attract a person to full liability, it is necessary that the corresponding provision be enshrined in an employment or supplementary agreement. As for the limited liability of employees , there is no need to specifically specify such a condition in the contract. In this case, the penalty is imposed in accordance with a direct indication of the law.
As a rule, ordinary employees do not have access to the funds of the enterprise and other facilities, the damage or loss of which could lead to significant negative consequences for the organization. The harm that may arise from their actions / omissions is not commensurate with the damage that may result from violations committed by employees who have access to such values.
Accordingly, the limited liability of the employee does not depend on the profession or position, but on the scope of authority, the magnitude of the damage. In this case, there should be no intent in the actions / inactions of the person.
Terms of imposition of penalties
When deciding on bringing the employee to limited liability, the manager must find out that the damage caused is due to the employee’s action / inaction. For example, the loader did not notice the shop window and, having brought the box with the goods, broke it or the secretary accidentally spilled coffee on the keyboard.
An important condition for imputing limited liability is the absence of circumstances precluding it.
Exceptions
As mentioned above, there are several circumstances in the presence of which a penalty cannot be imposed on an employee. These include:
- Force Majeure (Force Majeure).
- Disaster.
- Failure by the employer to provide the necessary funds, failure to create proper working conditions for employees.
- Normal business risk.
- Necessary self-defense or extreme need. For example, a robber burst into the office, the secretary was not at a loss and hit him on the head with a laptop, as a result of which the equipment was damaged.
It should also be said that the law provides the employer with the right to refuse to impose a penalty on the employee.
The limits of limited liability, therefore, depend, inter alia, on the presence / absence of the above circumstances.
Explanatory
After establishing the fact of causing harm, the guilty employee must submit written explanations to the head. If he refuses to do this, an act is drawn up.
In most cases, after receiving an employee’s explanation, the employer approves a penalty. The guilty employee should familiarize himself with its contents for signature.
Rules of accountability
They are fixed by 248 articles of the Labor Code.
The manager’s order on imputation of the penalty to the employee must be signed within a month from the date the final damage was determined. If this period has expired or the employee refuses to compensate for the harm, the employer has the right to go to court.
In the case of voluntary compensation by the employee for harm, he transfers the specified amount to the enterprise s / s or transfers the money to the organization's cash desk. By agreement of the parties, installment payment may be established. The conditions and procedure for payments in this case are fixed in the contract.
Termination of employment does not relieve the employee of the obligation to compensate for the resulting damage.
An employee can compensate for damage with equivalent property, restoration of damaged values with the consent of the employer.
Recovery of damage from an employee does not preclude the possibility of bringing him to disciplinary, criminal, administrative liability.
Collection size
As a general rule, the amount of compensation should be within the average monthly earnings of the guilty employee. If the amount of damage is equal to or less than the size of the salary, then it is fully recoverable. If the value is greater than the average monthly earnings, the amount of the salary is compensated, and the rest is written off to the employer's loss.
The size of the salary is determined at the date of damage detection. The calculation of average monthly earnings is carried out according to the rules of article 139 of the Labor Code. When determining the amount, all payments provided for the employee by the local documents of the enterprise are taken into account.
Regardless of the mode of operation, the average monthly salary is calculated in accordance with the actually accrued amount for the hours worked for the 12 months preceding the occurrence of damage.
Features of the trial
When filing a claim, the employer must take into account that the court will consider only those claims that have been declared. The instance is not entitled to go beyond their limits on its own initiative, except in cases expressly stipulated by law.
This means that if the employer submits a claim for recovery of the amount on the basis of the provisions on limited liability, and in the course of the proceedings it turns out that the liability in this case is full, the compensation will be awarded on the basis of the originally stated requirements, i.e. in the amount of the average monthly earnings guilty.
Full responsibility
It occurs under certain conditions:
- Full material responsibility assumes the position held.
- A special agreement has been concluded between the employer and the employee.
- There was a waste / damage to the values entrusted to the person under the report.
The list of financially responsible employees includes all employees who are, to one degree or another, connected with money or other valuables. These include:
- Directors.
- Heads of departments / divisions.
- Warehouse managers.
- Trading, banking workers.
- Cashiers, etc.
Cases of full matotvetstvennost
According to the law, compensation for the full amount of damage is imputed to the employee if:
- Full responsibility is assigned to the employee by legislative and other regulatory acts, local documents for harm arising from the performance of his professional duties.
- A shortage of values transferred to an employee in accordance with a special contract or a one-time document is revealed.
- The damage was done intentionally.
- The damage arose as a result of the actions of an intoxicated employee (toxic, alcoholic, narcotic).
- The harm arose in connection with the commission of a crime established by a court of law or an administrative misconduct identified by an authorized state agency.
- Information classified as protected secret (official, commercial, state) was disclosed.
- Damage is not caused by professional duties.
Important point
Before holding an employee liable, both limited and full, the manager must make sure that the actions of this particular citizen caused harm. To this end, the obligation in the legislation to take explanations from the employee is provided for in the legislation.
If necessary, law enforcement agencies can be involved in clarifying the circumstances of the damage. As a rule, this happens if the employee commits criminal acts intentionally.