The employer forces you to resign at your own request. What to do? | Career and business

The reasons when an employer requires an employee to write a statement of his own free will can be very different - the company does not have enough money to pay the employee, a personal conflict between a manager and a subordinate, an intention to vacate a position for “their” candidate. But all this does not mean that an employee is obliged to humbly resign just because the employer wants it that way. On the contrary, in most cases, Russian legislation is on the side of workers.

AiF.ru, together with experts, examined in detail the popular questions that arise among employees who are faced with an employer’s request to write a statement of their own free will.

How to behave if your boss demands that you resign at your own request?

In case of voluntary dismissal, only the employee can be the initiator. Otherwise, it will be the desire of the employer, not the employee. Such requests from superiors are illegal.

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Give me your salary!
How to force an employer to repay debts? “If you do not plan to part with your employer, then, of course, you should not write such a statement. I also don’t recommend entering into open confrontation with your superiors. First of all, you should clarify with management what caused this decision, and, based on the answer, take specific actions,” advises Tatyana Shirnina, senior lawyer of the labor law department of the Institute of Professional Personnel.
There may be several ways out of this situation:

Do not write a letter of resignation of your own free will and continue to work as if nothing had happened;
Do not write the above statement, but contact the regulatory authorities with a complaint against the employer;
Offer the employer to part ways by agreement of the parties with payment of a certain amount. “Often it is the latter option that suits both parties. The employee does not want to be “thrown out” of his job, and the employer is ready to pay if only the employee would leave. Therefore, there is always a choice, and it is up to the employee,” Shirnina emphasizes.

How to define forced dismissal?

What kind of tricks do the bosses resort to to say goodbye to an unwanted person? From subtle hints to obvious manipulation of facts and putting the employee in a bad light. Experienced managers, as a rule, hone their techniques by manipulating people's behavior, causing a reasonable desire to part with the employer.

The following information will help you identify dangerous trends in the administration's conversations and actions and be prepared to defend yourself when trying to impose will.

Options for forcing dismissal:

Taking advantage of legal illiteracy, management categorically orders a statement to be written, without allowing the employee to speak out in his own defense. This “solution” is communicated in a rude, dismissive manner.
When communicating with an employee, the manager leads him to the idea of the need to quit, presenting his intentions as the unspoken desire of the employee.
Total pressure begins on the person, creating unbearable conditions when communicating and fulfilling obligations under the contract. Every day an employee hears about his own unprofessionalism and worthlessness, which ultimately leads to the creation of a false belief that dismissal is the only way out.

An employee who adequately assesses his abilities and achieved results will be able to recognize in a deliberately dismissive attitude the desire to get rid of himself. But even in this case, proving the fact of coercion can be extremely difficult.

The following tips will help you recognize the true motives of the administration:

Determine the goal of what the manager wants from the subordinate. If there is an interest in improving professionalism, the conversation is structured differently, with a search for solutions to the current situation. If criticism has one goal - to show the employee the futility of his work in a given place - there is a compulsion to leave.
By the form of pressure, you can understand whether the boss is trying to help the employee do his job better. If management is interested in the employee, criticism is expressed gently in order to motivate corrections.

Not everyone is able to correctly assess situations, and resentment and lack of self-confidence leads to the belief that the only option is dismissal. If hints don't help, management can move on to:

intimidation and threats, when they offer to leave on their own before they are fired under the article or cause other troubles;
incorrect presentation of information, when even positive facts, results and achievements of a person are presented as a negative factor, the consequence of which may be dismissal or a fine;
physical threats and promises to cause problems of a material nature;
deliberate understatement of salaries, deprivation of bonuses under any pretext, imposition of unfair fines;
The pinnacle of lawlessness will be real physical impact, causing material damage, including indirect impact through third-party performers.

Even when the threats are unambiguous and clearly explained, it is difficult to subsequently prove that the real orderer of physical violence is the head of the organization or any senior person.

What to do if the employer is against the contract by agreement of the parties?

It happens that the manager stands his ground and does not want to hear about any agreement between the parties. In this case, he will have to deal with the labor inspectorate. After contacting this service, it must conduct a check on the employer.

Question answer

How to compensate for delayed wages?
“If these actions did not lead to anything, it is necessary to write a corresponding statement to the prosecutor’s office. If appealing to the help of the “eye of the sovereign” does not bring results, the employee must prepare to defend his interests in court. For this purpose, it is important to ensure the availability of evidence in advance,” says lawyer Vladimir Postanyuk.

What can you agree on with the employer in this case?

If you are not ready to resign of your own free will, but have already made a decision within yourself that you will not continue working in this organization, then you should reach an agreement with the employer.

Until you have reached an agreement with the employer, you do not need to sign any statements or agreements; you will sign the agreement when you are completely satisfied with its terms, but while there are no acceptable conditions for dismissal, we negotiate with the employer and beat out these most acceptable conditions for ourselves.

To negotiate with the employer, it is advisable, I repeat once again desirable, to invite a lawyer, because the lawyer has experience in conducting such negotiations, and negotiations in general. But there is nothing wrong with conducting such negotiations on your own.

But I will say right away that it will be much better with a lawyer, since these will be equal negotiations; nevertheless, the employer can put pressure on the employee, which will significantly affect the outcome of the negotiations. But it happens that an employee easily puts pressure on the employer, so you need to look and proceed from the situation.

It is also important that at the time of negotiations, the employee already has all the evidence that he was forced to resign. This is another plus and the likelihood of successful negotiations in this case increases significantly.

During the negotiations, we demand that the employer stop violating labor rights and restore the previous order of relations between the employee and the employer.

Second and most important! If the employer no longer sees a given employee in his team and wants to remove him, then the employee is not against leaving the team if the employer offers him good compensation.

If the employer offers an acceptable amount as severance pay, the employee signs the agreement, receives the money, and the employer will not see him again.

But the question remains, what amount to demand from the employer?

Compensation is not the employee’s greed or desire to punish the employer financially, this amount will help the employee find a job without significant financial losses. An employee cannot immediately find a new job, and he will have to spend a month, two, or maybe more looking for it, and this time, he needs to live on something, and he will live on compensation until he finds a new job.

The question is what should the amount be? Here you need to understand that the employer has no real grounds for dismissing an employee. Therefore, the employer can only initiate a reduction procedure, but in the reduction procedure, as in the liquidation procedure of an organization, the employer pays the employee approximately 3 to 5 average monthly earnings. You should start from approximately this amount.

What payments are due to employees upon liquidation of an organization?

In our practice, there have been cases when an employer voluntarily paid an employee 7 or 8 average monthly earnings for quitting. This is, of course, rare, but you can safely ask for three average monthly earnings.

The amount will depend on the circumstances. For example, circumstances in which you can ask for a larger amount may be the dismissal of a person with an illness, a pregnant woman, or a woman leaving maternity leave. That is, those circumstances that will have weight for the court.

A positive result is considered if the employer left the employee alone after negotiations, and he continued to work normally, or paid compensation, and the employment contract was terminated by agreement of the parties.

If the manager puts pressure

Typically, requests to write such a statement are accompanied by pressure on the employee. If your manager makes threats in an attempt to get fired, his behavior is a legal reason to contact the labor inspectorate, the court and the prosecutor's office. “If the manager limited himself to verbal actions when putting pressure on the employee, without resorting to threats to the life and health of the subordinate, then the boss who violated the law will face punishment under Part 1 of Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. At the same time, pressure should be understood as more than just a suggestion made at least once to write a statement. There must be a mandatory requirement, implying that if the employee disagrees, he will be subject to some kind of damage (he will be fired for an alleged gross violation of labor duties and theft in the workplace),” explains Postanyuk. According to him, if there are no aggravating circumstances in the case (repeated commission of a similar crime), then the unscrupulous manager may be overtaken by either a warning or a fine of 1 to 5 thousand rubles in relation to an official or individual entrepreneur. The punishment for legal entities is more severe: they are required to pay compensation in the amount of 30 to 50 thousand rubles.

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“We haven’t seen the money for a long time...” Who is to blame for salary delays? “If an employer uses violence against his employee, then he will face criminal liability under one of the articles of Chapter. 16 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation,” he adds.

Transfer to another office

You can force a person to resign through a transfer - and it’s completely legal. To do this you need:

Do not indicate the structural unit in the employment contract when hiring.
Transfer an employee to another department without his consent, based on Article 72 (Part 2).

This method allows you to transfer an employee to another position and to another office - after all, a specific office is not specified in the employment contract. But the change of position must take place in the same area, since the employer does not have the right to transfer an employee to another city without his written consent. This way you can force an employee to resign of his own free will, since not everyone wants to change their job.

However, at any time, an employee can object, relying on paragraph 27 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court. It states that the employer has no right to abuse his powers or violate the rights of the employee. When going to court, the employer's attitude towards his subordinates will be checked.

In any case, the best option would be to dismiss the employee by agreement of the parties . In this case, the employer is obliged to pay all compensation to his subordinate.

What is evidence of pressure being exerted?

Text records whose authorship can be identified, as well as audio files, in this case are considered as evidence of the employer’s guilt.

According to Shirnina, most often courts recognize audio recordings of conversations recorded on a voice recorder as inadmissible evidence. “Moreover, the courts, as a rule, reject requests to order a phonographic examination of a voice recording of a conversation. But it must be said that even if the recording is not included in the case, but is heard by the court, this can form the internal conviction of the judge, so it is worth trying to file such a petition,” she notes.

What tricks does an employer use to fire an employee?

The employer is always in a more advantageous situation than the employee, since the employer has enough leverage to put pressure on the employee. If an employer plans to get rid of an employee, then how he will act largely depends on his moral and ethical qualities.

Someone is acting truly unprincipled and frankly arrogant and stupid, but this even plays into our hands.

And so, let's move on to the employer's tricks and tricks that will allow you to find a reason for dismissing an employee. Don't fall for these tricks and remember them.

First trick . The employer will try to convince the employee that he is not coping with his responsibilities. Labor legislation does allow you to dismiss an employee on this basis. But not everything is as simple as it seems, and the employer must draw up a confirming document (act) for each fact (violation) of the employee’s failure to fulfill his job duties. In addition, the employee must provide the employer with an explanatory note, or in case of refusal to provide an explanatory note, the employer issues a refusal to provide an explanatory note. That is, in order to dismiss an employee due to the latter’s failure to fulfill his job duties, the employer must have ironclad evidence (protocols, acts, documents on disciplinary sanctions) confirming the fact that the employee did not fulfill his job duties. If there is no such evidence, then in the event of dismissal on such grounds, it can be considered illegal and reinstated in the workplace through the court, since the employer will not have any evidence for the court.

What to do if the employer puts pressure, gives a lot of instructions (above the usual norm), or instructions that were not previously given to the employee, in order to bring the employee under disciplinary action?

An employee in such a situation needs to immediately prepare explanatory notes, indicating what instructions were from the employer, indicate that new instructions are not feasible due to the existing schedule, indicate what amount of work was previously completed in a specific time, and now another increased amount of work is required tasks that cannot be completed within the allotted period of working time. Indicate that the employer actually forces the employee to overwork and spend additional working time. It is necessary to explain how everything really is, in simple words, without emotions, to put everything in order, how it was before and how it became.

Give one copy of such an appeal to the employer and ask the second copy to be stamped with acceptance and date. If they do not accept it in person, then send an explanatory note by mail to the legal address of the company, by registered mail with a list of the contents and acknowledgment of delivery.

This needs to be done on an ongoing basis as long as inadequate instructions are received from the employer.

If you were illegally fired from your job. Where to go, how to get reinstated at work?

If, in relation to an employee, the employer issues unreasonable orders of disciplinary sanctions for violations that the employee did not commit and the employee did not previously have any violations of labor discipline, then it is necessary to write explanatory notes for such violations and appeal them. The explanatory notes must indicate that the violations alleged by the employer were not committed, the work was performed in full, in accordance with the schedule, the work was carried out according to specific instructions and there were no comments on the quality of the work.

With such explanations and appeals, you characterize the employer’s actions as coercion to dismiss, and if the case goes to court, then all explanatory explanations will be considered, and the judge will definitely see in them that the employer is really putting pressure on the employee, which will once again confirm coercion to dismissal.

Second trick . Deliberately creating a situation where an employee is absent from the workplace, and then dismisses the employee allegedly for absenteeism. If the employer verbally informed about the transfer of the employee to remote work, or gave a verbal order to perform some work outside the established workplace, which is not typical, then you should be wary of this request. To transfer an employee to remote work, or a requirement to perform some duties outside the workplace, must be formalized in the form of orders or additional agreements to the employment contract.

If an employee takes such verbal orders from the employer at face value and does not show up at the workplace, then the employer formalizes this as absenteeism, with corresponding dismissal on this basis. And such a situation will indeed look like absenteeism, since there are no written documents confirming that the employer transferred the employee to a remote work schedule, or required him to perform duties outside the workplace, which will indicate that the employee did not leave without orders from the employer to work.

Third trick . Writing a letter of resignation at your own request, for further transfer to another position, or to a newly created organization in place of the old one. If such a proposal was preceded by an offer to resign of one’s own free will, then most likely, in this way they want to receive a statement from the employee of his own free will, and then not transfer or accept him for the promised job. Here, also in court, it can be proven that pressure was exerted on the employee before dismissal, but as mentioned above, the employee must have documents in his hands confirming that pressure was exerted on him. He must have all the explanatory notes that he submitted to the employer, confirming that the employer unreasonably imposed disciplinary sanctions and exerted other pressure on the employee.

Remember these tricks and do not fall for them, and if orders for disciplinary sanctions are issued against you, then we write explanatory notes on this matter, appeal these orders and collect documents to further prove the fact that pressure is exerted by the employer.

What threatens an employer who forces him to write a statement of his own free will?

If an employee contacts the labor inspectorate with a complaint about the employer’s illegal actions, the latter should prepare for an inspection.

“As a rule, it rarely happens when all personnel documents are in perfect condition, so the likelihood of being brought to administrative responsibility is quite high,” Shirnina emphasizes.

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Worker - get out! Will they be fired without explanation? “An employer has no legal means of achieving the dismissal of an employee at his own request. These actions are basically illegal. Traditional methods of “survival” of an uncompromising employee from an organization represent various variations of certain rights of the employee (primarily the employment contract). Due to this circumstance, the leader’s behavior can be used as a reason to bring a lawsuit: on charges of libel (Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), insult (Article 5.61 of the Administrative Code), etc.,” adds Postanyuk.

Legislative norms

There is no special article on illegal dismissal in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Article 77 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation defines the legal grounds for termination of the contract between the employer and hired personnel. Art. 394 defines the rights of the employee and actions permitted by law in his own defense. In particular, discriminatory motives will be an unlawful case of dismissal.

The Resolution of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation clearly states that the employee terminates the contract only if he really wants to do so. If there are signs of coercion, the situation needs to be verified and evidence provided.

It should be noted that an employer who can be caught violating the laws will be held accountable: administratively, in accordance with Article 5.25 of the Administrative Code, or criminally (as in the case of the unlawful dismissal of an employee raising a minor under 3 years of age, or during pregnancy, in accordance with Art. 145 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Can an employer fire an intractable employee?

As practice shows, if an employer plans to get rid of an unwanted employee, he rarely abandons this idea.

However, the manager cannot fire an employee just because he refuses to write a statement of his own free will. But he can try to bring the subordinate under one of the grounds. For example, absenteeism or showing up at work while intoxicated.

“An employee who is asked to write a statement of his own free will should be more attentive to his job responsibilities, come to work on time, not be late from lunch, and not arrange “smoke breaks” and tea parties for himself during working hours. In general, fully comply with labor discipline. In addition, perform your job duties carefully and efficiently, because this employee is under the close attention of the employer,” advises Shirnina.

Where to complain if the employer insists on a resignation letter?

First, you should talk to the employer and try to find out the reason for his demands. Perhaps the situation can be resolved peacefully.

If this method does not work and your boss continues to put pressure on you, you can contact the State Labor Inspectorate (Rostrud). The appeal must be made in writing (it is also better to duplicate it by mail), and it should be taken personally to the appropriate department of Rostrud. Based on your application, the inspectorate must initiate an inspection. If violations are discovered, the employer will receive a fine.

If they try to persuade you to write a statement of your own free will, you are unlikely to be threatened openly, since there is a risk that you will record the conversation and could use it against the company.

“You are not qualified for your position”

Often, in response to logical questions from employees, “Why are you asking me to quit?” the employer replies: “You are not suitable for your position. And management’s opinion on this issue is sufficient.”

No, not enough. The fact is that the employee’s inconsistency with the position held or the work performed must be confirmed by the results of certification (Part 3, Article 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation), and not by the subjective opinion of the boss.

Three steps to a new job. Advice for applicants

More details

“At the same time, the certification process is applicable only to employees who, by the nature of their activities, are associated with equipment, mechanisms, machines, devices, devices and vehicles, as well as sources of hazards that can have a harmful effect on humans. In addition, it is also necessary to certify specialists who use hand tools during their work, including electrified or mechanized ones. The latter also includes the participation in the procedure of office workers, who spend more than half of their time at the computer. Certification in a specialty is carried out only on the basis of special educational institutions, courses or plants for both private companies and government agencies. Thus, the manager’s ability to influence the certification to his advantage is reduced to a minimum,” says the lawyer.

As a result, the certification mechanism is not available to an unscrupulous employer.

How to push an employee to resign of his own free will: 6 ways

How to make an employee quit on his own? HR specialists of large companies identify two basic strategies for dismissing employees:

Direct – quick and decisive dismissal. For violating company rules, misconduct or poor performance. It is understood that the employee is faced with a choice - either write a statement of his own free will, or the procedure for dismissal under the article is launched.
Passive-aggressive , in which an undesirable employee unwittingly participates in his own dismissal. The idea is to push the employee to make an independent decision about leaving or transferring to another department.

The first strategy is used when there are solid formal reasons to fire an employee unilaterally. The second is when there are reasons, but they are not spelled out in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (not sufficiently motivated, does not fully cope with responsibilities, does not meet expectations, etc.). We will describe below how it can be implemented in practice, citing 6 methods used by Western managers - from the most lenient to the fairly strict, but still within the framework of corporate ethics and current legislation.

Just talk...

This is the softest strategy, but at the same time effective in 80% of cases. Often it is enough to simply have an open conversation with your employee. Find out how happy he is in the company, what he is happy with and dissatisfied with, and whether he wants to change something. You can try to explain to him that his results are lower compared to his colleagues, and perhaps he is simply in the wrong place.

Such a conversation can quickly achieve the desired result. However, if you feel that it will be useless, skip it and move on to the next strategies.

Apply Performance Improvement Plan

PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) is a technique now widely used by Amazon, Google and other technology companies. The bottom line is that if an employee does not cope with the tasks assigned to him, he is transferred to PIP, which lasts on average 2 months. During this time, the employee is systematically increased in workload, but at the same time taught to cope with them more effectively, in order to ultimately begin to meet the expectations of the manager. At the end of the PIP period, a decision is made on dismissal or continuation of cooperation. According to the HR specialists we interviewed while writing this article, with a competent approach, it is rare that an employee does not decide to resign of his own free will after only a month.

Transfer an employee to a less prestigious project

If subtle approaches do not work, and light “hints” are not perceived, it’s time to hint more transparently. For example, transfer an employee to solve problems that do not correspond to his level of competence. For example, how will a programmer feel if you send him to accountants to “program” Excel spreadsheets? In a personal conversation, this decision is motivated by the fact that he did not cope with previous tasks well enough. If a person has any personal career ambitions, he will certainly think about leaving.

Apply micromanagement practices

Micromanagement is the total management and control of an employee:

requests for documentation instead of taking their word for it;
extreme detail of tasks;
frequent requests for reports;
constant surveillance.

As a rule, this approach helps even the most inattentive employee understand that you are dissatisfied with him and are forced to control his work in the smallest detail.

This practice is very common in management, and employees who are unaware of it often perceive “control with bias” as incompetence of management. But no! It is likely that they simply want to push you to resign of your own free will.

Record absolutely all violations

A strategy that works well with people who regularly, although not too seriously, violate internal rules, regimes, prohibitions, etc. Each such violation should be recorded, and explanatory notes should be placed in a pile on the manager’s desk. Usually, if the number of such misconduct is small, managers turn a blind eye to them. But if there are too many of them, you need to record and document everything. A smart employee will write a statement himself, without waiting for dismissal under the article.

Enable complete ignore

Paying too much attention is undoubtedly an effective method, but you can do the exact opposite. Which of these is better is up to you to decide.

One of the main reasons why employees leave companies is a lack of attention from management. Why don't you create this precedent artificially if you want to push an employee to resign of his own free will? In addition, this is the most energy-saving method, although it may require more time than others.

Make it clear to the employee that he is an extra element in the well-coordinated mechanism of your department or group. Be Silent Bob alone with him, do not assign tasks to him separately, do not encourage or reward him in any way (even for misdeeds), do not tell him whether he is doing his job well or poorly. If the employee has at least a drop of ambition, if he is not a completely callous cracker, then this method will definitely work.

About the job description

Not all companies have employees with a job description and a clear area of activity. Can an employer take advantage of the lack of a job description and fire an employee, citing this fact?

“A job description is not a mandatory document, so here we need to start from where the employee’s job function is stated. If it is stated directly in the text of the employment contract or in the job description (which the employee is familiar with), then this is one story and here the certification procedure can be launched, and based on its results a conclusion is made that the employee is not suitable for the position held.

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Keep it to yourself. 8 things that should not be mentioned in a resume If the job duties and qualification requirements for the position held are not specified anywhere, then the employer cannot dismiss such an employee for non-compliance with the position held by law,” Shirnina emphasizes.

This is due to the fact that first of all it is necessary to understand what the employee does not meet and what requirements were initially placed on the employee.

“In general, such a basis as an employee’s inadequacy for the position held or the work performed due to insufficient qualifications, confirmed by the results of certification, is quite slippery. As a rule, it is the employees who win in such disputes. The very procedure for such dismissal for commercial organizations is not regulated by law and, as a result, is carried out in violation; conclusions about the employee’s non-compliance are considered biased,” the expert adds.

Tips for HR: how to avoid possible problems with dismissal even at the stage of hiring an employee

Almost any employee has to part with sooner or later. And not necessarily because the parties were disappointed in each other. But to ensure that the dismissal process is simple and painless in any case, HR departments should adhere to a few simple recommendations:

Drawing up detailed job descriptions that clearly define all the responsibilities of employees and the penalties for failure to fulfill them.
There are no discrepancies between employment contracts and other documents that employees follow in their work. This will avoid ambiguities in interpretations.
The employee must be officially familiarized with all the requirements, which must be confirmed by a document signed by him and three other employees.
The employee must initially be familiarized with the KPI requirements and clearly indicate what productivity will be required of him in order for him to meet the employer’s expectations.

And most importantly, you need to greet each new employee in a friendly manner, establish good relationships with him, try to help him adapt and join the team. With this approach, the likelihood of him being apathetic towards his work will be significantly reduced.

Can an employer force an employee to sign a job description after the fact?

The job description specifies the employee’s job function, and it is a mandatory condition of the employment contract, experts say. Changes (including additions) to the terms of the employment contract are permissible only with the consent of the employee. It is impossible to force an employee to sign something without his desire already during his working life.

“By the way, the absence of a mandatory condition of the employment contract is regarded as a violation of labor legislation, for which administrative liability is provided (Part 3 of Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation),” Shirnina notes.

Categories of employees with immunity to dismissal

There are a number of categories of workers who, by law, can only leave “of their own free will.” It is prohibited to dismiss them by decision of the employer, except in a limited number of situations.

First of all, these are people of pre-retirement age, which begins 5 years before retirement (according to the legislation updated in 2021). Such employees can be dismissed in the usual manner only in the following cases:

change of legal owner faces;
job reductions;
liquidation of the enterprise;
proven inadequacy for the position;
inability to cope with one's responsibilities;
absenteeism;
gross violations of labor discipline;
theft of property by an employee.

But this in no way means that you should not hire older employees. We have already written about the advantages of hiring employees of pre-retirement age.

There are other categories of employees whose dismissal without their express consent is prohibited by law:

Pregnant women, and there is a certain legal imbalance here, because they cannot be fired even for rudeness, absenteeism and theft. The only exception is the liquidation of a legal entity. faces.
Mothers with children under 3 years of age and single mothers with children under 14 years of age. They are prohibited from being fired for low qualifications or made redundant.
Any employees on sick leave or on leave (including maternity leave).
Minors. They can be dismissed only with the consent of the commission for minors or the labor inspectorate.

These are groups of socially vulnerable workers, therefore the Labor Code of the Russian Federation protects their right to work most seriously.

What to do if the application has already been written?

Another situation is if the employee, under pressure, wrote a letter of resignation, and then filed a lawsuit for reinstatement at work.

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Fired and ready to work. Who can help you find a job in Moscow? According to the expert, in this case, it is quite difficult to prove the employer’s coercion, since it is the employee who bears the responsibility to prove that he was forced to resign of his own free will.

“However, the employee still has a chance to prove that the employee filed the application of his own free will, out of fear of being fired. This is evidenced by judicial practice, for example, the ruling of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court dated November 20, 2007 in case No. 33-5607. In this decision, the court assessed the employer’s threats to fire the employee for absenteeism as a circumstance confirming pressure and coercion to dismiss. Judicial practice in disputes about restoration is quite diverse and depends on the specific circumstances of the case; it is always worth fighting for your rights,” summarizes Shirnina.

What to do if your employer forces you to resign: legal advice

In Art. 80 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation states that an employee can resign at any time of his own free will. It is his initiative that is important here, but it often happens that the employer himself forces you to submit an application, using the worst methods:

He openly forces me to write a letter of resignation and threatens me.
He deliberately creates unbearable conditions: he loads him with work and turns the entire team against him.

The “simplest” way out is to follow the manager’s lead and quit. If an employee holds on to the position and wants to stay in the company, there are several options:

Threaten the employer with a complaint to the trade union if the employee is a member of it. You can also complain to the labor inspectorate or the prosecutor's office.
If there are witnesses to the conversation with the manager, talk to them and find out if they are ready to testify if the employee files a complaint somewhere. Often, most of the team is subject to pressure from the employer, and it is possible to find someone who will take the employee’s side.
Record all conversations with the employer using a voice recorder or videotape. Later such records may be needed for trial; now judges accept them as evidence.
Find employees whose boss also tried to force them to quit “on their own.” Perhaps they will agree to file a collective complaint with the prosecutor's office. Typically, such complaints are considered as thoroughly as possible, and the organization will conduct an investigation.
Ask the employer to give instructions in writing, especially if they go beyond the scope of the job description. This is relevant if instructions are given specifically with short deadlines, when the manager knows that it is impossible to complete them in such a time.
Collect positively characterizing copies of documents: orders, letters, reports on successfully completed certifications. They may be needed both during legal proceedings and during inspections by the labor inspectorate or the prosecutor's office.
Perform job duties conscientiously and never be late. This is necessary so that the employer cannot dismiss an employee on his own initiative for violations under Art. 81 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

In practice, it is morally difficult to work, knowing that you are under “gunpoint” and the manager is just waiting for a reason to fire you under clause 4, part 1 of art. 77 Labor Code of the Russian Federation. If this is acceptable, it is worth concluding an agreement with him to terminate the employment contract, you can ask for “compensation” - compensation. This option can be convenient for both parties when it is impossible to work together.

Let's look at a few more different situations in detail.

During quarantine

At the beginning of 2021, due to the coronavirus pandemic, many enterprises declared non-working days while maintaining the average salary for staff. Some managers began asking employees to quit “on their own” in order to save budget.

You can't do that. If an employer forces you to resign at your own request due to quarantine, you do not need to write a statement. It is enough to use any of the methods presented above to stay in the workplace.

Upon liquidation

Art. 178 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation obliges organizations to pay employees severance pay upon dismissal due to liquidation - at least two average monthly earnings. To save money, some employers ask you to write statements “your own way.”

If you follow the lead of the manager and resign of your own free will instead of being liquidated, you will not be paid severance pay.

The solution is simple: you should record the conversation with the manager, and under no circumstances submit an application. Even if there is a lot of pressure on the employee, you can endure the remaining notice period, receive payments and quit on real grounds.

When contracting

Dismissal of one's own free will instead of layoff is also beneficial for employers in order not to pay severance pay. Here you need to act in the same way as during liquidation.

Dismissal of a pregnant woman

Art. 261 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation prohibits an employer from dismissing a pregnant woman, except in cases of liquidation of an enterprise or termination of the activities of an individual entrepreneur. If the relationship with her does not work out, he will ask to terminate the contract “on his own.”

When faced with such a situation, there is no need to be afraid: even if a pregnant woman does not comply with her job description or is late for work, she cannot be fired. If the contract is terminated at the initiative of the employer, this can be appealed through the court. Most of these cases are resolved in favor of the plaintiffs.

Get on the stock exchange, then get a job again

This happens if an organization is downsizing or planning to liquidate and open another enterprise, and you don’t want to pay severance pay. Employers offer employees to quit, join the stock exchange, and then get hired again. It’s better not to follow the lead: there are no guarantees that an employment contract will be concluded later.

On probation

There is no economic sense in forcing someone to resign on their own during a probationary period. The employer himself can terminate the contract by notifying the employee at least three days in advance if he does not suit him (Article 71 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). They usually insist on terminating the contract on their own, because it is easier to challenge dismissal on the initiative of the employer.

On a sick leave

If an employee is on sick leave, the employer cannot fire him even on his own initiative (Article 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). You need to wait until the certificate of incapacity for work is closed, and only then fire.

If desired, an employee can apply for sick leave. If he does not want to do this, it is enough not to react to the manager’s provocations; if necessary, file a complaint with the prosecutor’s office or the labor inspectorate.

Dismissal of a pre-retirement employee

One of the main reasons for the pressure on pre-retirees is age. It is difficult to fire them even due to reduction, because they are given a preferential right to remain if:

have two or more dependents;
there are no other people in the family with independent income;
the employee received injury or an occupational disease from the employer;
there is the title of disabled combat veteran, disabled veteran of the Great Patriotic War;
the employee improves his qualifications in the direction of the employer without interrupting his work.

In connection with the pension reform, criminal liability was introduced under Art. for the illegal dismissal of pre-retirees in 2021. 144.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. If the employer’s unlawful actions can be proven, the court may fine him up to RUB 200,000. or in the amount of income for 18 months, or assign compulsory work up to 360 hours.