Even in a seemingly stable enterprise, a situation may arise when a serious personnel change is required . This may be due to a decrease in the volume of production, a change in the range of products or the reprofiling of the enterprise as a whole. In this case, an order to reduce staff will be required , a sample of which must be drawn up taking into account all the norms of labor legislation.
Procedure
Changing the staffing cannot be done in one day. Such a step should be preceded by a whole procedure of sequential actions. So, you must:
- Make a change to the existing staffing.
- Issue an order approving the changed staffing table.
- Create an active commission that will closely deal with the very process of reducing employees.
- Create an appropriate order to reduce staff, a sample of which should reflect the actual motivation for the actions taken and contain information on the creation of a working commission.
- The commission determines the list of employees subject to dismissal.
- All employees from the compiled list are sent a notice of impending dismissal. If the enterprise has a trade union committee, then it is necessary to notify it of forthcoming actions and obtain consent within the time limits established by law.
- Notify the employment center of upcoming events.
- Issue dismissal orders separately for each employee from the list. This can be one document in which each employee is allocated a separate item.
- Make entries to laid-off workers in work books and pay them severance pay.
Each of these items must be documented in compliance with all legal norms.
Making a list of employees to reduce
At this stage, you must be very careful. After the order to reduce staff is issued, a sample list of employees must be prepared with particular care. First, you must not forget about the Labor Code. Articles 256 and 261 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation will tell those who should be excluded from this list. Means:
- women who are pregnant
- women who have children under 3 years old,
- single mothers with children up to 14 years old (or disabled children under the age of 18),
- other persons also raising children under 14 years old (or disabled children under the age of 18 years).
Also, do not forget that you should not include in a similar list those who are currently on vacation or officially ill. Excluding all of the listed persons, they finally draw up a staff reduction order. Its sample must be approved by the management, agreed with the responsible persons and must comply with the rules of personnel records management.
Work Commission Actions
Do not forget that for each stage there are their own time limits established by the state. They must be strictly adhered to in order for the activities to take effect. After the order on the reduction of staff is issued, a copy of it is given for review to the team. The commission at this time should draw up and hand over to the group of employees notifications of their forthcoming dismissal related to the reduction of their posts. The document needs not only to be transmitted, but to obtain the signature of each employee that he is familiar with the decision of the management. There are times when people who disagree with a decision are refused to sign any papers. They count on their refusal to cancel an objectionable action. But the order has no retroactive effect. And in such cases, the commission should act as follows:
- draw up a certificate of refusal to sign in the presence of witnesses,
- send the document to the employee to the home address by registered mail, arranging delivery with delivery confirmation, and together with the form enclose an inventory of the papers to be sent in the envelope.
Reduction focus
The reduction process is always carried out for a specific purpose. There are only two reasons known that may lead the company management to carry out such a procedure:
1) Reduction for one reason or another of the total number of employees.
2) Liquidation of specific posts.
In the first case, an “Order to reduce the staff of employees” is issued. This means that the collective is undergoing reorganization, as a result of which specific staffing units will be unnecessary. This fact is clearly reflected in the previous order, which specifically spelled out the names of those posts that should be removed from the state. In itself, the reduction of staff actually leads to a reduction in numbers. The only exceptions are those cases when, instead of the reduced ones, completely new staff units and posts are introduced. It must be remembered that only “living” units can be eliminated. The withdrawal of vacant posts or the reduction in the number of existing units is not a reduction.
Features of the contractile procedure
I must say that regardless of whether an order is being created to reduce the number of staff, the model for the correct preparation of such a document is the same in both versions. It must also be remembered that in any case, the employer is simply obligated to offer the employees subject to reduction, another job that he currently has. Naturally, it should correspond to their professional qualifications and state of health. It is necessary to offer not only actual, but also vacant units. There is a situation when a worker does not like any of the available positions, and a particular employer has a suitable position in another locality. Then he is obliged to offer it if it is provided for by the employment contract (agreement) or is recorded in the collective agreement of the enterprise. This will require the consent of the employee, expressed in writing. After all, it is impossible to force a person to change his job and place of residence by force.
How to cancel a decision
There are cases when the employer makes the final decision to reduce the number of employees solely because of the difficult financial situation or the lack of orders that give employees the opportunity to work at their workplaces. Such a step is a necessary measure. For example, a standard procedure has already been completed, a reduction order has been drawn up, and all employees have been notified of the impending dismissal. But suddenly the situation is fundamentally changing, and the leadership decides to cancel the emergency measures. What to do in this case: to dismiss everyone, and then again to hire or to find another, more constructive solution? In this situation, it would be more correct to issue a special order, which will speak about the cancellation of the order and the entire contractile procedure, including the dismissal of employees. Such an order must clearly spell out the reasons that prompted management to take this step. In addition, it instructs the personnel department to make appropriate adjustments to the staffing table, and to the chief accountant to put in order the necessary documents. The employee subject to reduction should also be familiarized with this document for signature.