A new approach to calculating the frequency of inspections of compliance with labor protection requirements from the beginning of 2021.

General violations in the field of labor law

On January 1, 2015, Federal Law No. 421 of December 28, 2013 came into force, which introduced changes to the Code of Administrative Offenses: it divided violations of labor legislation into different elements of administrative offenses, increased liability, and increased penalties.
Most often, in the reports based on the inspection results, inspectors note the following general violations of labor legislation:

• the employer approves local regulations without taking into account the opinion of the elected body of the primary trade union organization;
• the employment contract does not include a record of the employee receiving his copy in hand (Article of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation);
• there is no seal or wax seal on the book of accounting for the movement of work books or the book of records of work book forms - this is an outdated, but not yet canceled requirement (Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation dated April 16, 2003 No. 225);
• in violation of the requirements of Art. 140 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, settlements with employees were not carried out on the day of their dismissal;
• in violation of Art. 236 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, monetary compensation for delays in payment when dismissing employees is not accrued and is not made;
• vacation records are not kept in the employee’s personal card (Resolution of the State Statistics Committee of Russia dated January 5, 2004 No. 1);
• personal cards of employees do not contain signatures confirming familiarization with records of hiring, transfers and dismissals (clause 12 of the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of April 16, 2003 No. 225).

Penalties

Top 3 violations detected by labor inspection

According to statistics, employers most often violate the rules of labor protection, payment of wages and registration of employees.

Occupational Safety and Health

Flaws in terms of labor protection are made not only by small office companies, but also by large industrial and construction organizations. They are the ones who most often become regulars at labor inspections. As for small firms, many of them even believe that labor safety rules do not apply to them. After all, Article 217 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation specifies the phrase “production activity”. Meanwhile, such activity is the production of not only products, but also any work or services.

An organization with a staff of 50 or more people must have a separate occupational safety specialist or corresponding service. With a smaller number of employees, this function is assigned to the manager or an employee authorized by him. It is also permissible to engage a person or organization for this activity under a civil contract.

What exactly will inspectors pay attention to regarding labor protection? The main thing is job evaluation . Its results, as well as the benefits provided to the employee (if he is employed in hazardous work) must be included in the employment contract.

It is necessary to carry out a special assessment of working conditions at a certain frequency:

• for jobs created and certified before 2014 - once every 5 years (from the date of the last certification);
• for jobs created later - within 12 months after their creation.

Inspectors will also be interested in labor safety briefing logs . Such instruction should be carried out when specialists are hired, as well as regularly during their working career. This also applies to the leader. The latter must undergo occupational safety training, which must be confirmed by relevant documents.

Here are some more rules that employers often forget about:

• issuing appropriate equipment to employees of certain positions (drivers, cleaners, janitors);
• availability of disinfectants in the office;
• mandatory medical examination of employees who are entitled to it.

Remuneration rules

The second most popular group of violations is related to wages . Here, inspectors traditionally pay attention to the following:

• correct calculation of wages for holidays and weekends;
• salary payment terms;
• violation of these deadlines, that is, delay of the RFP.

According to the new rules, which came into force in October 2021, a delay is considered to be a gap between the accrual and payment of wages of more than 15 calendar days .

Employee registration

In third place are violations related to the documentation of employees. Failure to conclude an employment contract is not as common today as it used to be. Now the most popular violation in this part is the absence in the contract of a provision on what type of work is entrusted to the employee . In addition to indicating that the employee holds a position in accordance with the staffing table and will perform the duties of his job description, it is necessary to list the specific work that is assigned to him.

Quite often there is a violation of the rules for maintaining a book of accounting for the movement of work books . Employers forget to number the pages and also lace, seal and seal this book.

Violation of wage rules

This is the most popular type of violations detected during GIT inspections. Most often, employers are caught for non-payment of wages and other charges, incomplete payment, violation of payment deadlines, and also for charging a salary less than that provided by law. In 2021, liability for violations in this area was once again tightened ( Federal Law No. 272-FZ dated July 3, 2016 ): for organizations, fines can amount to up to 50,000 rubles. Repeated violations are punished much more severely - up to disqualification, that is, deprivation of the head of the enterprise of the right to hold a position for a period of one to three years.

Penalties

As a rule, the head of the organization or an employee temporarily replacing him is held accountable for violations in the field of wages, but the chief accountant can also be held accountable if his guilt is established in the untimely payment of vacation pay or delayed wages.

Changes in conducting GIT inspections from 2021

24.03.18
The article was published in the newspaper “First Page” No. 02 (096), March 2018

New trends are emerging in the procedure for conducting GIT inspections. What features of conducting inspections of compliance with the requirements of labor legislation and labor protection legislation in 2018 should an employer take into account?

Supervisory holidays

Until December 31, 2018, the period will continue when scheduled inspections of small businesses are not carried out (Article 26.1 of the Federal Law of December 26, 2008 No. 294-FZ “On the protection of the rights of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs in the exercise of state control (supervision) and municipal control" , Article 4 of the Federal Law of July 24, 2007 No. 209-FZ “On the development of small and medium-sized businesses in the Russian Federation”).

If an employer, a small business entity, finds himself subject to inspections, he can submit an application to the supervisory authority to exclude him from the annual plan for conducting scheduled inspections.

If the employer has not been brought to administrative responsibility for committing a gross violation, disqualification or administrative suspension of activities, and also if he has not been deprived of his license, inclusion in the inspection plan violates his rights (Article 26.1 of the Federal Law of December 26, 2008 No. 294-FZ “On the Protection of rights of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs in the exercise of state control (supervision) and municipal control”, hereinafter referred to as Federal Law No. 294-FZ).

From 2021, “supervisory holidays” will stop, and small businesses will begin to be included in inspection plans. During inspections, a risk-based approach will be used.

Risk-based approach when conducting inspections

When conducting scheduled inspections of compliance with labor laws, a risk-oriented approach is applied from July 14, 2015 (Part 1, Article 8.1 of Federal Law No. 294-FZ, Clause 2 of the Regulations on Federal State Supervision of Compliance with Labor Laws and other regulatory legal acts containing labor law standards (approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated September 1, 2012 No. 875, hereinafter referred to as the Regulations).

The essence of this approach is that the duration, frequency and form of the inspection depends on which risk category the employer is assigned to. The risk category is assigned by a labor inspectorate official based on certain criteria (clause 18 of the Regulations):

- Chief State Labor Inspector of the Russian Federation (his deputy) - if classified as a high-risk category; - chief state labor inspector in a constituent entity of the Russian Federation (his deputy) - when classified as significant, medium and moderate risk. If there is no decision on assigning a risk category, then the employer’s activities fall into the low-risk category.

The appendix to the Regulations lists a list of risk categories to which employers may be classified. According to the risk category, the frequency of scheduled inspections of the implementation of labor legislation is established (clause 1 of the appendix to the Regulations, clause 20 of the Regulations):

— high risk — once every 2 years; — significant risk — once every 3 years; - average risk - no more than once every 5 years; - moderate risk - no more than once every 6 years; - low risk - no scheduled inspections are carried out.

The employer can clarify the risk category upon request to the State Tax Inspectorate. The response to the request must be given no later than 15 working days from the date of receipt of the request (clause 13 of the Rules for classifying the activities of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs and (or) production facilities used by them to a certain risk category or a certain class (category) of hazard, approved Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation dated August 17, 2016 No. 806, hereinafter referred to as the Rules).

You can change the risk category by submitting an application to the regulatory authority. To do this, you will need to attach a package of documents (Part 6, Article 8.1 of Law No. 294FZ, clauses 17–22 of the Rules). The employer must respond in writing by sending information by mail to his registered address. The decision can be challenged either by filing a complaint with a higher official of the supervisory authority or in court.

Lists of employers of extremely high, high, significant risk or hazard classes 1, 2, 3 must be available on the official website of the regulatory body (clause 12 of the Rules). On the official website of Rostrud, information about employers whose activities are classified as high and significant risks is annually posted and kept up to date (clause 21 of the Regulations).

The list of employers in the high-risk category is given in the Order of Rostrud dated June 14, 2017 No. 350 “On classifying the activities of employers-legal entities and employers-individuals registered in the prescribed manner as individual entrepreneurs and carrying out entrepreneurial activities without forming a legal entity, to the high-risk category.”

Checklists

From 01/01/2018, state labor inspectors, when conducting inspections of employers classified as moderate risk, must use checklists (checklists). When checking, the inspector cannot go beyond the scope of questions that do not relate to the subject of the inspection (Article 9 of Federal Law No. 294-FZ, Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of September 8, 2017 No. 1080).

For all other employers, this innovation will take effect from 07/01/2018. Currently, Rostrud has approved 107 forms of checklists (Order of Rostrud dated November 10, 2017 No. 655 “On approval of checklists (checklists) for the implementation of federal state supervision of compliance with labor legislation and other regulatory legal acts containing labor law standards”). However, the document is currently being registered with the Ministry of Justice and has advisory value. At the same time, we recommend that employers use checklists now to prepare for inspections or conduct personnel audits. This will be useful to prepare for questions from inspectors and to bring personnel records into compliance with the law. The checklists contain mandatory legal requirements and references to legal provisions.

Each checklist is designed to examine a specific aspect of the employment relationship.

For example, checklist No. 1 is devoted to the procedure for registering employment, sheet No. 2 is devoted to compliance with the requirements for the content of employment contracts, and checklist No. 20 is devoted to organizing the investigation and recording of industrial accidents and occupational diseases.

Checklists will also be used for control in the field of migration (Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 27, 2017 No. 1668 (came into force on January 5, 2021, with the exception of certain provisions)). Checklists for this type of scheduled inspections have not yet been approved.

Unscheduled inspections without warning

From January 11, 2018, changes to Art. 360 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (Federal Law No. 502-FZ of December 31, 2017). Now an unscheduled inspection without warning the employer can also be carried out if someone reports to the labor inspectorate that the employer:

- avoids drawing up an employment contract; — does not properly draw up an employment contract; — concludes a civil contract that actually regulates labor relations.

However, inspectors are not allowed to inform employers about the inspection. For these offenses in the field of violations, administrative liability is provided under Part 4 of Art. 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation in the form of a fine for officials and entrepreneurs from 5,000 to 10,000 rubles; for legal entities from 50,000 to 100,000 rubles.

Consolidated inspection plan

You can find out whether any supervisory authorities plan to check the activities of the employer on the official website of the Prosecutor General's Office. This service was created and operates in accordance with Part 7 of Art. 9 of Federal Law No. 294 “On the protection of the rights of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs in the exercise of state control (supervision) and municipal control.”

List of typical violations with their classification

At the end of December 2021, Rostrud compiled and published on the official website a list of typical violations of mandatory labor legislation requirements.

In this list, violations are sorted by the degree of risk of harm and the severity of their consequences. This list will help you understand which violations the supervisory authorities will consider the most serious.

Violations are rated on a 10-point scale depending on the negative consequences for the employee.

According to Rostrud, organizations will be subject to the most severe punishments for violations in the field of concluding employment contracts and agreements thereto, maintaining and storing work books, procedures for dismissing employees, etc.

The smallest risk of punishment comes from violations, for example, in compliance with the procedure for transmitting information about the results of a special assessment of working conditions to the State Labor Inspectorate or the presence of an incomplete set of regulatory legal acts containing labor protection requirements in accordance with the specifics of the activity. These violations are assessed with one point.

Author's note: this analytical material is for the newspaper “First Page. Good for business!” was written with the participation of a practicing lawyer from Moscow - Tatyana Sergeevna Snezhkina.

Attention! The use of any materials from the publication is possible only with the written permission of the editors. When copying, a link to the newspaper “First Page” is required.

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Violations in the field of labor protection

Compliance with labor safety requirements is the responsibility of the company's management. For negligent attitude to the requirements for organizing safe conditions, the employer may be brought to administrative and even criminal liability. The same Federal Law of December 28, 2013 No. 421 (came into force on January 1, 2015) highlighted all violations in the field of labor protection in a special article - Art. 5.27.1 Code of Administrative Offences.

It contains a separate paragraph (clause 2 of Article 5.27.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences ) for violations of the procedure for conducting a special assessment of working conditions. During the inspection, the State Labor Inspectorate pays special attention to whether a representative of the trade union organization was included in the commission for conducting the special labor assessment, and whether compensation was awarded for harmful and dangerous working conditions. In addition, the employer is obliged to familiarize employees with the results of the assessment within 30 days against signature and post the results of the special assessment on the organization’s website.

Inspectors also have many questions about allowing employees to work (Clause 3, Article 5.27.1 of the Administrative Code). Some of the most common mistakes include:

• absence or improper maintenance of briefing logs, lack of a training program;
• failure to conduct training and knowledge testing on labor protection or training in non-accredited organizations (Procedure for training on labor protection and testing knowledge of labor protection requirements for employees of organizations, approved by Resolution of the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation dated January 13, 2013 No. 1/29);
• lack of a commission to test knowledge of labor protection;
• absence of a list of contingents and a name list of persons subject to mandatory medical examination (violation of Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated April 12, 2011 No. 302n);
• failure to conduct mandatory preliminary/periodic/pre-trip medical examinations (Article 213 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation);
• failure to conduct mandatory psychiatric examinations in specialized clinics that have accreditation (Article 213 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated April 28, 1993 No. 377 “On the implementation of the Law of the Russian Federation “On psychiatric care and guarantees of the rights of citizens during its provision” as amended on September 23. 2002).

How is an unscheduled labor inspection scheduled?

The procedure for organizing unscheduled control is regulated by Art. 10 and 14 of Law 294-FZ, art. 360 Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Not any information about violations of labor laws necessarily becomes a reason for ordering an inspection. The law allows for preliminary verification activities to assess the reliability of the information received. For this:

• explanations are taken from the applicant;
• documents of the enterprise already at the disposal of the inspectorate are studied;
• Explanations may be taken from representatives of the enterprise that allegedly committed the violation.

At this stage, it is not allowed to require the employer to provide any documents. The preliminary check is terminated if:

• it is not possible to identify the applicant (the appeal was anonymous);
• It was determined that the information received was not true.

In other cases, an order to conduct an inspection should be issued. As a general rule, all regulatory authorities are required to obtain the approval of the prosecutor's office before conducting an inspection based on information about the threat of harm to the life and health of people. In urgent cases, an inspection on this basis can be carried out immediately with notification to the prosecutor's office (Part 8 of Article 360 ​​of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

The enterprise is notified of the upcoming unscheduled control no later than 24 hours before its start. Notification is not made if the basis for the inspection is:

• information about threats to human life and health;
• employee complaint about violation of his labor rights.

What the GIT checks: procedure

Schematically, the regulations for conducting supervisory activities can be reflected as follows:

Alert . A warning about a scheduled inspection must be received by the enterprise no less than 3 days before the inspector’s visit. During this time, you have the right to request details of the upcoming inspection: which body is sending the commission, the labor inspectorate inspection regulations, for what period they are checking, in what order and what measures are envisaged. If the inspection is unscheduled, then the law does not oblige the State Inspectorate to notify. The inspection can begin at the same moment when the inspector arrives at the company. But in practice, they are often notified 24 hours in advance.

Verification of documents . Since 2021, the verification takes place in the format of a questionnaire. The powers and rights of inspectors have not changed, but the regulations for their actions have become more structured: the results of control are entered into checklists formed by topic (for example, in the topic “Labor contract”, the labor inspectorate checks the existence of contracts, the correctness of their preparation, and the timeliness of signing).

We will talk in detail about what documents the labor inspectorate checks below.

Drawing up an act with the results . Sometimes it is compiled at the enterprise, but more often than not you need to go to the GIT for it.

Drawing up an order . This point is carried out if there are violations. The document contains a description of the violation, even its commission, a link to a legislative act, and a deadline for elimination. At the end of the period there will be another check.

What does the labor inspectorate check during a routine inspection?

There is no fixed list of documents that are required by the inspectorate. The list of documents that you must present at the request of the inspector includes:

• Employment contracts.
• Personal files and personal cards.
• Work books and registers of their accounting.
• Time sheet.
• Work schedule and vacation schedule.
• Paysheets and accounting statements.
• PVTR and some other local acts.
• Registers of familiarization with LNA, personnel and accounting documents.

What does the labor inspectorate check during an unscheduled inspection?

Unscheduled inspections are thematic in nature. That is, the State Tax Inspectorate receives a signal about a specific violation and conducts an investigation on this topic. For example, an employee complained that the employer did not make a payment on the last working day or did not return the work book.

If the inspection is thematic, the inspector is limited to the scope of the request. That is, in the example above, he does not have the right to check compliance with labor safety standards or request documents related to other employees.

A special case is what the labor inspectorate checks when there is a complaint from an employee who wishes his name to remain unknown to the employer. This right is given to workers by Article 358 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. In this situation, the inspector, in order to keep the applicant incognito before the company, may request the documents of several employees.

How to check the registration of a complaint with the labor inspectorate? The employer cannot do this: he only has access to the order presented by the inspector. But the applicant can track the status of his application through his personal account on the website onlineinspetskiya.rf.

Verification deadlines

The period of an unscheduled inspection by the labor inspectorate cannot last more than 20 working days (Clause 1, Article 13 of Law No. 294). If an inspector needs to request any documents from other government agencies, he has the right to petition his superiors to suspend the procedure. Management, in turn, has the right to suspend it for 10 working days. The law allows you to suspend an inspection only once.

Important! If the State Tax Inspectorate makes a decision to suspend the inspection until certain documents are received, during this period any activity of the state inspector at the inspected enterprise must be suspended (clause 2.2 of Article 13 of Law No. 294).

The inspection period can be extended by the head of the State Tax Inspectorate for a maximum of another 20 days if there are compelling reasons. If the person being inspected is a small or micro-enterprise, then the period is extended only by 50 and 15 hours, respectively.

If the employer has branches in different regions, the inspection is carried out separately for each of them. The total verification period in this case can be increased to 60 working days.

Despite the fact that the law clearly defines the period during which an unscheduled inspection of the activities of a legal entity or entrepreneur can be carried out, it should be borne in mind that the number of such inspections is not limited and depends on the emergence of grounds for their conduct.

This feature also distinguishes an unscheduled inspection of the State Labor Inspectorate from a scheduled inspection, within the framework of which state inspectors can inspect the employer no more than once every 3 years (with some exceptions established by the Government of the Russian Federation).

New labor protection rules: table

What the labor inspectorate checks: boundaries of authority

The limits of inspectors' powers depend on the type and subject of the inspection. As already mentioned, there is no universal list of documents to be checked, but there are 3 main limitations.

What an inspector cannot do: 3 restrictions

1. Check more than what is specified in the questionnaires.
2. Request documents or information that is not related to the topic of the inspection.
3. Seize original documents.

If there are violations, administrative liability can be applied not only to the manager, but also to senior executives. For example, for the chief accountant. But ordinary employees cannot be held accountable based on the results of an inspection from the State Tax Inspectorate.

Frequency of planned control by labor inspectorate

Previously, GIT inspections were carried out no more often than once every 3 years. Since February 2021, a risk-based approach has been applied to labor supervision (clause 17 of the Regulations). Inspection plans for 2021 were developed taking this approach into account.

The essence of the approach is that all organizations and entrepreneurs are assigned a certain risk category. The procedure for its assignment is regulated by the Rules, approved. Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated August 17, 2016 No. 806. Depending on the risk category, the frequency of inspections is established:

• high - once every 2 years;
• significant - once every 3 years;
• average - once every 5 years;
• moderate - once every 6 years.

IMPORTANT! Scheduled inspections of low-risk enterprises are not carried out. If a risk category has not been assigned, the enterprise is considered to have low risk.

Information about companies with the first two risk categories is published on the official website of the Federal Service for Labor and Employment. In addition, any enterprise can find out its risk category by written request to the State Labor Inspectorate. The response is sent within 15 working days from the date of receipt of the request. It is possible to submit an application to change the risk category.

For enterprises operating in the fields of healthcare, electricity, education and some others, special inspection periods are established, regardless of the risk category (see Part 9, Article 26.1 of Law 294-FZ; List approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated November 23. 2009 No. 944). They can be checked even more often than once every 2 years.

Why will the inspector conduct an unscheduled inspection of the organization?

Important

The State Tax Inspectorate cannot conduct an inspection based on an anonymous complaint or application without information about violations

The State Labor Inspectorate will inspect an organization unscheduled if it becomes known that the employer is violating labor laws. The inspectorate can obtain information in different ways. The most common is a complaint. For example, an employee or a concerned citizen can complain.

The inspector will not tell the employer which employee reported the violation. It is prohibited by law to disclose information about the source of the complaint (Article 358 of the Labor Code).

In addition to the complaint, there are three more reasons for an unscheduled inspection: the expiration of the deadline for fulfilling the order that the State Tax Inspectorate had previously issued to the employer, information from the media or trade unions, an order from the head of the State Inspectorate, which was issued on behalf of the president, the government or at the request of the prosecutor (Article 360 ​​of the Labor Code).

In addition, information about a violation can be provided by an official of the federal labor inspectorate.