Any work must be paid, be it a simple physical, intellectual or mental work. In addition, a citizen has the right to independently evaluate the value of his work and to make claims if he is not accepted for the desired job without good reason. To the guarantee - the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
general information
In reality, cases of violation of labor rights of citizens are much more common than can be imagined. Including the refusal to pay honestly earned money. The reason for this is the passivity of citizens themselves regarding their own labor rights, reluctance to spend time and nerves on disassembly, or disbelief in justice. This problem, to a large extent, concerns citizens working in the field of unskilled labor.
However, the problem is completely solvable. The protection of the labor rights of citizens is handled by several state bodies. It is enough to write a complaint to one of them or even to several instances. The reaction will follow immediately. In addition, the law encourages citizens to take an active stance, and government agencies carefully monitor the system.
The first thing that citizens need against the arbitrariness of employers is to know their legal rights. The Labor Code clearly regulates not only the rights of the employer, but also its obligations. And he has a lot of the latter.
Non-payment of wages may occur during the period of work of the employee in the enterprise or after dismissal. Before the law, such circumstances do not matter. Fear of job loss should not be an obstacle to the protection of one's own rights. Objectively, this is not so: a person with an active life position always finds a suitable job for himself. It should be borne in mind that career building has common principles with the usual interpersonal relationships: the employee is treated as he allows to relate.
Letters of the Workers Act
Statistics show that some domestic employers may delay staff settlements for months, even years. But citizens have all the legal leverage to prevent this. Adequate remuneration for all labor is guaranteed by the Labor Code. Deviation from the established rules is punishable strictly, up to criminal punishment.
It should be borne in mind that non-payment of wages, regardless of the delay, can be classified as coercion to free labor, which entails criminal liability.
Article 136 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation stipulates that the employer must pay wages at least twice a calendar month. The form of payment of your choice: by transfer to a bank account or hand-over. There are also specific instructions regarding salaries. So, according to article 22 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, its size must be equivalent to the work performed. The exact amount of payment is fixed in the employment contract. If at the end of the billing period the employee receives less than what is specified in the contract or does not receive money at all, then he has the right to apply for protection of rights by filling out an application for non-payment of wages.
About what authorities should be contacted, and how to do this, we will discuss further.
Background and circumstances of the delay
The complexity of the problem lies in the fact that citizens do not have the opportunity to determine the employer for good faith in advance. Usually, an employee encounters a problem later when he has worked for a certain time, hoping for a salary, and his bills payable and living expenses have accumulated.
The situations in which non-payment of wages occur are diverse. Circumstances play only an indirect role, if there are facts. If an employee does not receive wages for objective reasons, in which the employer himself is also at a disadvantage (force majeure, fraud against the company or another good reason), then the punishment is relatively simple: he will be obliged to pay the debt and pay a fine of benefit of the state.
But in practice, often dishonest employers are also found. They may specifically ignore workers' rights, hoping to go unpunished. In such cases, he should be reminded of Article 145.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which guarantees criminal punishment for non-payment of wages.
Independent measures on the part of the employee
When considering any controversial situation in the legal field, a procedure such as pre-trial settlement is applied. It is understood that when reminding the employer of all the consequences of an unscrupulous act in relation to employees, he will still pay wages.
There are three methods for this procedure:
- Enactment of Article 236 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. This article gives the employee the right to suspend production activities if non-payment of wages is delayed for more than 15 days.
It is first necessary to send a written notice to the employer, where the intention to suspend work until the payment of wages must be expressed. The application is made in duplicate. This is a mandatory point, since one copy may be required in court if the problem cannot be resolved in pre-trial procedure.
The document must be handed in personally and get the signature and seal of the clerical department, indicating that the document has been accepted for consideration. You can also send by registered mail. In this case, you can not go to work only after the document is delivered, and the citizen receives a notification about it. This measure should be taken before writing a statement to the prosecutor about non-payment of wages.
How long can such a protest last? Logically, the employer in this case should respond immediately and inform about the intention to pay the employee on a certain date. After the answer is received, the employee must go to work no later than the next day. If it was not possible to achieve such an intention of the employer, then you need to take care of other legal methods of collecting salaries, such as a statement about non-payment of wages to law enforcement agencies.
An exception to this method are certain categories of workers: military personnel, public servants, employees of public utilities, emergency medical services, hazardous industries and workers working in a state of emergency.
- Appeal to a lawyer. In practice, the very fact of going to a lawyer solves a lot of issues. Firstly, he will receive a legal assessment of the situation. Secondly, a lawyer can do pre-trial measures. Professionals solve such issues with one visit or a call to the employer, where they will report on the consequences of ignoring the interests of employees. Thirdly, a lawyer will help to properly file a statement to law enforcement agencies, including the prosecutor's office on non-payment of wages.
- Appeal to the union. Trade unions are formed within the framework of large enterprises, where many people work. If the company has such a community, then you should contact him.
Legal Aspects
Information on the procedure for the payment of wages must be recorded in the employment contract. It is also mandatory to indicate the amount of funds. In addition, financial relationships should be reflected in such local documents as the Collective Agreement and the Regulation on Remuneration.
What to do if an employer is not concluded with an employer? Unfortunately, such cases are also not uncommon in practice. But, the absence of an agreement does not relieve the employer of liability for the payment of wages. What is important to remember, in the absence of a contract, if the conflict comes to litigation, the employee will need to prove the fact of performing official duties at this enterprise. The evidence of other employees may be used as evidence.
Judicial practice shows that such cases rarely lead to the plaintiff's victory. That is, it is likely that justice will not be achieved in court. To avoid such consequences, an employer should be required to conclude an employment contract.
An employment contract should be distinguished from a civil law document. The second is not able to provide adequate protection of rights. The first type of contract guarantees the protection of the interests of workers at the level of federal law.
Where can I go?
There are several authorized state bodies where you can apply if the employer does not pay wages for a long time. These bodies:
- Labor inspection.
- Court.
- Prosecutor's office.
You can write a complaint to one of these bodies or send it immediately to all structures. There are three ways to file a complaint:
- Personally visiting the office of a government agency.
- Sending in electronic form. The form for generating complaints to the labor inspectorate or to the court about non-payment of wages is on the website of each of the listed bodies. It is enough to fill out and send a document.
- Sending via mail with a description of the attachment of documents. This method is not recommended, as the first two methods will be more effective.
Next, we will consider how to draw up a document in accordance with the requirements of supervisory authorities and other circumstances arising in business relationships.
How to file a complaint / statement
Official documents have their own established procedure. This applies to both the structure of the document and the rules for filling out. The sample application for non-payment of wages does not have a clearly defined template, but must certainly follow the following rules:
- At the beginning of the document in the upper right corner indicates the local branch of the state agency where the complaint is sent, as well as its address.
- The personal information of the victim is recorded: his full name, phone number, address.
- The title of the document with the wording "Complaint."
- The essence of the claim. The entire course of development of business relations with the employer should be described in chronological order, including their own actions to resolve disputes. If there is evidence, then copies should be attached.
- At the end of the document, the purpose of the appeals should be formulated: a request to take measures in accordance with the law, to punish the guilty or to help collect wages.
- Contacts for feedback.
- Date of document formation, initials and signature of the author.
How to apply to the labor inspectorate?
Labor Inspection - a body whose direct responsibility is to protect the rights of workers and control over the implementation of the Labor Code and other standards in this area. A complaint to the labor inspectorate about non-payment of wages must be filed in all cases when the employee failed to resolve the issue on his own.
The complaint is accepted in writing. It is also possible to send an electronic complaint through the website of the inspection units. In this case, a copy of the evidence should be taken, scanned and attached to the complaint. In all cases, the sample application for non-payment of wages to the Labor Inspectorate should include the following information:
- Name of IT department.
- Initials, address and contact details of the victim.
- Information about the tenant: legal and actual address, initials of the head.
- The deadline for non-payment of wages, the amount of debt to the employee.
- Independent attempts and their results.
- Request for rectification of violations of rights and assistance in obtaining a salary.
- Contact details.
Lawsuit
It should be remembered that the appeal to the judicial authorities has a fixed time period during which the victim has the right to file a claim. This period is 3 months from the date of delay in salary. When filing a lawsuit in court on non-payment of wages, it is advisable to first obtain legal advice. He will give a legal assessment of the current situation and help determine the prospects of the court case.
The lawsuit has no fundamental differences in content. The basic structure includes the following information:
- Name of the judicial authority.
- Initials and information of the plaintiff.
- Information about the defendant.
- The essence of the problem.
- A reference to specific laws that have been violated in this case.
- Evidence base.
- Please take action in accordance with the law.
- Contact details.
A claim or other sample of non-payment of wages is not submitted remotely - through the site. To be accepted for consideration and to initiate proceedings, it is necessary that the claim be registered with the clerical department of the judicial authority.
An example of a complaint to the prosecutor
Another option when faced with the arbitrariness of employers is a statement to the prosecutor about non-payment of wages. The competence of the prosecutor's office includes control over the implementation of not only the Labor Code, but also all other laws and regulatory documents of federal and regional destination.
Free form of claim is allowed. However, it is important to consider the real situation. The prosecutor's office always has a lot of lawsuits to consider. The clerical department carefully weeds them out if they seem insignificant. In order to avoid such an outcome, one should also seek legal advice and file a lawsuit with reference to specific articles of existing laws. Here we should mention article 142 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation on a common basis.
Finally
It should be borne in mind that the prosecutor's office is a supervisory authority, the direct competence of which is mainly the identification of violations of the law. Collection of funds is already a liability arising from violations. As judicial practice shows, prosecutors rarely deal with financial disputes. But, if you correctly file a complaint, where the emphasis will be placed precisely on breaking the law, then liability for non-payment of wages may take the form of one of the forms of punishment:
- Compensation in favor of the plaintiff.
- Administrative punishment, involving the payment of a fine of 30 to 50 thousand rubles.
- The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in the event of non-payment of wages provides for liability with imprisonment of up to 3 years or involvement in forced labor.
The latter applies if deliberate delay in salary is proven. If delays are caused by circumstances beyond the control of the employer, then one of the first two liability options applies.
In all cases, the complaint or statement must be in duplicate. One is submitted to the supervisor, the other remains with the victim.
Now it is known which employer is responsible for non-payment of wages. You can make a statement based on the sample presented in the article.