Resolving a dispute - deadline for contacting the labor inspectorate after dismissal

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One of the private types of disputes between an employee and an employer is the termination of an employment relationship without proper grounds. After all, according to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, it is not allowed to dismiss a citizen just like that. But not everyone knows that you can appeal an employer’s decision. Read our article about how to write a complaint and for what period of time it needs to be filed.

In what cases should you file a complaint?

There are many reasons for writing applications to the labor inspectorate.

1. There are often cases of violations related to various types of payments: wages, vacation pay, sick leave, payroll, etc.
2. It happens that employers deprive an employee of vacation or force him to work on weekends and holidays, without providing any compensation in return, not to mention overtime pay.
3. Sometimes employers violate work and rest schedules, occupational safety rules, exceed the established duration of work shifts, etc. - all this also becomes a reason for a complaint to the labor inspectorate.
4. Unfairly dismissed employees also contact the inspectorate with demands to reinstate them in their positions.

Statute of limitations

The decision to dismiss an employee, if it was made unreasonably, can be challenged by filing an appeal with one of the state regulatory authorities. Most often, the inspectorate is the recipient of complaints from dismissed workers.

After considering the citizen’s complaint, the inspectorate must decide to conduct an inspection. If the facts stated in the letter are confirmed, the government agency will take penalties against the unscrupulous manager of the enterprise.

So, the deadline for submitting an application to the inspectorate after dismissal is one month. During this period, it is necessary to file a complaint with the state regulatory authority. The application must contain the following information:

1. Information about the employer, applicant and recipient of the application. Remember that a complaint can only be made to the local inspectorate.
2. Grounds for employment: date of hire, period of activity and position. It is also necessary to write the date of termination of the employment relationship and the reason that was indicated in the order.
3. Objections: here you need to indicate the conditions with which the employee does not agree. You should also write down the laws violated and links to attached documents that are evidence of violations of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

At the end of the document you should definitely write a requirement. For example, about conducting an audit, collecting unpaid wages or reinstatement at work. The last point is the date of preparation of the document and the personal signature of the applicant.

Download a sample application here

As soon as the application is accepted by the department, its employees are required to conduct an investigation into the fact of dismissal. Within the time limits provided for by Federal Law 59, the inspector must identify violations or make a decision on their absence. If wrongful dismissal is confirmed, the employer may be subject to a fine, as well as an order to eliminate inconsistencies.

Do you want to know how to complain to the labor inspectorate about your employer? Read a special article prepared by the editors.

Where and when to file a complaint

The document is written to the address of the local territorial labor inspectorate (its branches operate in all major cities and towns).

The period for filing a complaint is three months from the date of the labor dispute.

After this, the complaint will not be accepted for consideration and the employee will have only one option left - to restore justice, sue the company in court.

It should be noted that a complaint can be filed both while working at the enterprise and after dismissal.

What if you don’t appeal the decision made by the labor inspector?

If the company misses the deadline for appealing the decision, it will come into force in 10 days and the fine will have to be paid within 60 days (Article 32.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

If the employer does not pay the fine, then the bailiffs will forcibly collect it (including the enforcement fee - 7 percent of the fine amount or 10,000 rubles for an organization and 1,000 rubles for an entrepreneur).

Is it possible to write a complaint to the inspectorate anonymously?

The Labor Inspectorate is a government body that is called upon to sort out difficult situations in the relationship between an employee and an employer, therefore, like any other government agency, it does not accept anonymous complaints.

To maintain confidentiality, you can directly include a clause in the complaint requesting that information about the complainant not reach the employer.

In addition, it must indicate the applicant’s contact information, his address and telephone number for feedback.

According to the law, labor inspectorate specialists must take the necessary measures to resolve the conflict and, based on the results of the investigation, send a response to the originator of the complaint.

Inspection powers and verification

It all depends on the nature of the violation that was indicated in the application, but the possibility of discovering additional problems during the inspection is not excluded. The powers of the state labor inspectorate are as follows:

• Detection and recording of cases of evasion of compliance with legal norms.
• Recording cases of administrative violations and their consideration.
• Collection and forwarding of information about illegal actions to higher executive authorities.
• Drawing up recommendations and instructions based on detected inconsistencies with current labor legislation.

It is worth noting that the inspection itself, based on an application from a former or current employee, may be unscheduled. In this case, the actions and movement of the inspector can be strictly limited by the management or security service of the enterprise to those internal departments from which he can obtain the necessary answers. The inspection must notify the organization of such an inspection at least one day before arrival.

The inspector must present his official identification and instructions. These two documents make it possible to legally justify the reason for his visit. If there are several such people, all of them must be provided with correctly executed papers.

It is worth noting that if a dismissed employee appeals to a government agency regarding the payment of the salary that he received in “gray” form, he will face failure.
Therefore, it is better not to contact them about this, but to try to resolve such issues yourself. After all, the employee in this case bears part of the blame for the current situation. The act drawn up during the inspection, which indicates all identified violations and gives instructions for their elimination, is mandatory for execution by the employer. Fines for evasion are quite high, so an organization or individual entrepreneur will be interested in paying the former employee the required compensation. In 2015, they were revised and range from 30 to 200 thousand rubles, depending on the nature of the organization.

What results to expect

Writing a complaint does not guarantee that it will be satisfied in full; partial satisfaction or refusal is possible, but in any case, the decision must be made strictly in accordance with the current legislation of the Russian Federation. During the consideration of the complaint, labor inspectorate lawyers (namely, these specialists are directly involved in the investigation of labor disputes) will contact the employer with a demand to provide them with all the necessary information for the investigation. Then, if violations are detected in any part, the employer will be required to eliminate them, and penalties will be imposed.

If the applicant does not agree with the decision of the territorial labor inspectorate, he has the right to appeal it to a higher authority (for example, by writing a statement to the chief labor inspector of the Russian Federation) or in court.

To whom does GIT come and why?

The main task of such a visit is to monitor compliance with labor laws. For this purpose, it can conduct inspections - scheduled and urgent. In this case, a schedule for such work is drawn up in advance and published in the public domain. This means that the employer can find out in advance that representatives of the labor inspectorate are planning a visit to him.

An exception is an action initiated urgently after an employee’s complaint. The company manager may be warned about it literally the day before or not warned at all.

Rules for drawing up a document

There is no legally established unified complaint template, so the employee can write it in any form. However, it is necessary to adhere to certain standards for writing such documents, namely:

• indicate the addressee, i.e. name and number of the labor inspectorate,
• own personal data (position, surname, first name, patronymic),
• the essence of the problem in as much detail as possible.

If you have problems drawing up a complaint, you can seek help from an independent lawyer (but this is a paid service), or take advice from a labor inspectorate employee.

When drawing up an application, you must refer to the violated provisions of the law (it is advisable to indicate specific articles), and also include a list of attached documents.

You should be extremely careful when writing a complaint, since it has the status of a legally significant document and can later serve when going to court.

All information contained in it must be reliable, errors must be allowed, and even more so, knowingly false information cannot be included in the document. Otherwise, if such facts are revealed, the employee may suffer a well-deserved punishment (for example, for slander).

What are the risks of contacting an employer?

Based on the results of the inspections, a report is sent to the organization with mandatory instructions and deadlines for their implementation.

In addition, penalties provided for by law may be applied to a negligent employer:

• monetary fines;
• disqualification for a specific position;
• closure of the organization for a period of no more than 3 months;
• criminal liability if the norms of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation were violated.

These types of punishments can be imposed not only on the company’s management, but also on the accountant and ordinary employees who were responsible in the matter violated.

Important: The amounts of administrative fines and other penalties directly depend on the severity of the offenses and their impact on the life and health of employees. At the same time, eliminating the regulations does not exempt you from paying penalties.

How to file a complaint

The document can be

• write by hand (directly to the labor inspectorate),
• print on the computer (at home, in advance).

Regardless of which option is chosen, you need

• sign it yourself
• and indicate the date of writing (it must correspond directly to the day of application).

It is better to make a complaint in two copies , both need to be endorsed by the receiving specialist, and then one is transferred to the inspection, and the second is kept for yourself.

What documents need to be attached to the application?

From the point of view of the law, the employee is not obliged to personally prove the fact of violation of labor rights. However, if he wants to resolve the conflict as quickly as possible, the following documents should be prepared in advance:

1. Copies of internal orders with the help of which the employer tries to attract the employee to perform unspecified duties.
2. Statements of witnesses who are ready to further confirm the opinion expressed in writing about the existence of a violation.
3. A copy of the employment agreement and other local instructions, the terms of which were violated by the employer.
4. A copy of the job description.
5. Copies of sick leave, vacation schedules, time sheets and other accounting documents.
6. Photo or video confirmation of violations.

Of course, in the event of a gross violation of labor rights, the inspectorate will independently seek the necessary evidence. However, the more documents are attached to the complaint, the sooner the issue will be resolved in favor of the applicant.

Sample complaint to the labor inspectorate

1. At the beginning, on the right or left (does not matter), the name and number of the labor inspectorate to which the applicant is applying is written; the company for which he works and his position, last name, first name, patronymic (in full) are also indicated here.
2. The following is the actual text of the complaint. Here you again need to indicate the employer, the number and date of the concluded employment contract, and the head of the company.
3. Then the essence of the complaint is described in detail, after which a request should be included in the complaint to understand the conflict and take measures to restore the violated rights. Don't forget to include a confidentiality clause.
4. Finally, you need to record the list of attached documents, as well as sign and date the complaint.

What should I do if I was not paid upon dismissal?

Rules for using services and information

users of the electronic services system “Onlineinspection.rf”

The rules for the use of services and information by users (hereinafter referred to as the Rules) of the system of electronic services “Onlineinspektsiya.rf” (hereinafter referred to as the System) apply to all electronic services of the System, without exception, accessed through sections and pages of the Internet portal https://onlineinspektsiya. RF (hereinafter referred to as the Portal). These Rules govern the behavior of all, without exception, registered users in the System and unregistered visitors to the Portal.

1. Terms and concepts used in these Rules

1.1 These Rules use the following terms and concepts:

System – system of electronic services “Onlineinspektsiya.rf”.

Services are basic and additional tools offered to the User for interaction with authorities.

The portal is an information resource created for the purpose of interaction of citizens with the System, located on the Internet at the address: https://onlineinspektsiya.rf.

The portal administration is officials of the Federal Service for Labor and Employment and representatives of the contractor under the state contract for the provision of technical support of the Portal, who carry out the operational management of the Portal.

User – a person registered on the Portal who is invited to use the services provided by the Portal.

Moderator is a representative of the portal Administration who processes user messages.

Moderation is the process of processing and analyzing the compliance of the User’s message with the provisions of these Rules for the use of services and information by users of the online services system “Onlineinspektsiya.rf” and the User Agreement.

2. General rules

2.1. To access the publication of messages on the Portal (discussions, comments, questions and use of any other means of interaction between the User and the System), each Portal User must read and agree with these Rules.

2.2. After reading the texts of the Rules of Use and the User Agreement, confirming agreement with them on the registration page or sending a message, each User, by these actions, enters into an agreement with the Portal Administration to regulate their relationship.

2.3. The Portal Administration has the right to carry out moderation through representatives of the Portal Administration - moderators.

2.4. These Rules may be amended by amending the relevant order of the Federal Service for Labor and Employment.

3. User registration

3.1. The Portal has a user registration system. Only registered users have the opportunity to interact interactively with the System services.

3.2. To register on the Portal, the User specifies a valid email address - notifications about the current status of published messages (appeals) will be sent to it, and selects a conditional User name (“nickname”).

3.3. When registering a User, the System requests a password for the login being registered. This password must be known only to the User and must not be disclosed to third parties. The password used can be changed by the User in a special section of the Portal – User Profile.

3.4. When registering a User, the System initiates the authorization process by sending an SMS message with an activation code to the User’s phone number specified during registration. The received password must be entered in a special field in the window that opens. Only after entering the password will the account be activated.

3.5. For users who have an account on the Public Services Portal (https://www.gosuslugi.ru/), the opportunity to authorize using the login and password for this account is provided. If registration is carried out using this method, verification via SMS message is excluded.

4. Publication of appeals

4.1. Each registered User can publish an appeal.

4.2. Appeals are published in accordance with the proposed classifier of problem categories.

4.3. To create a request, you must fill out the request form. In the application form, the User must indicate his real data.

4.4. The user must fill in the following fields about himself as an applicant:

— the applicant’s residential address;

— last name, first name, patronymic (if any) of the applicant;

— the applicant’s mobile phone number (if there is no mobile phone required when registering in the System, the applicant has the right to submit an application directly to the email address of the territorial body of Rostrud. The list of territorial bodies of Rostrud is posted on the unified information portal of the Federal Service for Labor and Employment on the Internet "(https://rostrud.ru/). If the User has not previously registered on the Portal, an activation code will be sent to this specified phone number, which must be entered in a special field in the window that appears in order to activate the User’s account and contact him ;

— email address to which notifications about the progress of solving the problem will be sent.

The Portal Administration ensures non-disclosure to third parties of all user data entered during the registration process, except for cases stipulated by the User Agreement.

4.5. The user must fill in the following fields about the place of work:

- region, city and exact actual address of the organization of which he is an employee;

— information about the organization: name, legal form, legal address, information about the director;

— information about your position and period of work;

— information about third parties whose mention is required to fully describe the problem.

4.6. The user needs to fill in the following fields about his problem:

— explanations of the current situation;

— photographic materials.

Information entered in the “Explanation of the current situation” field becomes public and should be of a general nature. In this field it is prohibited to mention the personal data of third parties. If the applicant violates this paragraph of the rules, the User himself is responsible for the publication of information.

Photographic materials are classified information by default and can be published publicly at the discretion of the User.

4.7. Before sending the application, the User agrees with these Rules for the use of services and information by System users and accepts the agreement on the processing of personal data. In case of disagreement with these conditions, each User has the right to refuse to use the resource and use other types of communication offered on the official resources of the department.

4.8. The Portal uses post-moderation of messages. Messages are published immediately after they are posted by users and, if they violate these Rules, they are deleted, or the moderator sends a letter to the User with a request to eliminate the violation.

4.9. Reasons for refusal to publish a message or proposal to make adjustments:

- ignoring spelling rules and profanity, the message is not written in the state language of the Russian Federation or contains a large number of spelling and syntax errors, is written in capital letters, contains profanity, including in a veiled form;

- the lack of a logical connection between the sentences in the address, which does not allow one to understand the general meaning of the described case;

— extremism, discrimination (in all forms: racial, ethnic, age, gender, religious, social, etc.);

- commercial purposes and advertising - if, in the opinion of the moderator, the published information is directly or indirectly aimed at making a profit;

- insufficient description or unfounded accusations - the moderator reserves the right to reject a case if the information specified in it does not allow us to draw a conclusion about an existing offense;

— cases in which there is no specific indication of the problem and there are questions of a rhetorical nature are not moderated;

— cases that do not correspond to the category chosen by the User are not moderated;

— messages that duplicate previously published messages are not moderated (the text of the message completely repeats the text of the previous message, that is, it does not contain new information).

4.10. The user can familiarize himself with the response to the published appeal in his personal account, having previously completed authorization on the Portal.

Thank you for your attention and understanding!

Is it possible to complain anonymously?

Many citizens have a question about the possibility of anonymously filing an application - there may be several reasons for this:

• The employee has not quit his job, but he wants to initiate a review with his employer (while fearing that his complaint could negatively impact his career).
• The employee has already quit, but he is afraid of any actions on the part of the former employer that could lead to negative consequences for the applicant.

Whatever the reason, you will have to indicate your data on the application - otherwise it will not be accepted and considered, since the labor inspectorate does not consider anonymous applications .

If an already dismissed employee is afraid of his former employer, in the event of unlawful actions against him, he will have every right to contact the police, who will take the necessary measures. In addition, in the complaint itself you can make a request not to disclose data to the other party .