Responsibility of the employer for the loss of the employee’s work book

Loss of labor in the workplace is a fairly rare phenomenon, but still very relevant. In essence, a work book is perhaps the only and most important document of an employee.

The labor record not only allows you to confirm actual work experience, but also correctly calculate pension payments for the employee.

We’ll talk about what to do if your work permit is lost at work, as well as the specifics of document restoration in this situation, in today’s article.

What laws govern the storage of labor records?

A work book is an official document that includes all records of work in certain places of a citizen of the Russian Federation. A work record book can tell an employer quite a lot about its owner: important information about the employee’s experience and qualifications, the duration of his work. A dismissal record can speak volumes about the integrity and responsibility of an employee.

The main regulatory documents that establish the procedure for maintaining, storing and restoring work books are:

1. Labor Code (Article 66 “Labor book”). It states that the employer is obliged to obtain a work book for anyone who has worked for him for more than 5 days, and must enter all information about the hiring, transfer or dismissal of his employee. But there is no complete information in the Code about how to restore or what to do if a document is lost.
2. Government Decree No. 225 of 04/16/2003 (last edition dated 03/25/2013) “On work books” with “Rules for maintaining and storing work books...”.
3. Resolution of the Ministry of Labor of Russia No. 69 of October 10, 2003 (last edition dated October 31, 2016) “On approval of the Instructions for filling out work books.” It contains important instructions on how to correctly enter all information into a duplicate.

Step-by-step restoration of the work record

In fact, the worker’s book must be restored without fail. At the same time, there are certain kinds of difficulties, the solution of which must be considered step by step:

1. Contacting previous organizations (where the person worked) in order to obtain a document on experience.
2. If the company where a person worked was liquidated, then he needs to find the archive in which the company was registered. This documentation about work and experience can be issued by this particular government agency.
3. Appeal to the Pension Fund.
4. Appeal to the courts.

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The employment record, which was recently opened, contains information about a short period of work experience. That is why it is easier to issue a new form.

https://youtu.be/SKoRAmZ8AJo

Was the book lost?

There are situations when an employee of the HR department looks for a work book for a long time and worries about it, but it is found after some time.

This is not always the fault of the HR manager or another company employee. The book is quite likely to end up in the employee’s home, and the personnel officer may not even think about checking the employee’s personal file, where there is a receipt stating that he temporarily took it, for example, in order to apply for a pension.

First of all, it is recommended to give the HR department a few days to search for:

• You need to collect as much information about the book as possible. In the book of accounting and movements of work books, you can see the date and its number upon admission, and look at the books of other employees who got a job on that day.
• It is also recommended to look into the employee’s personal file; perhaps there is his receipt stating that he temporarily took the document or did not have it in his hands at the time of hiring (if it was lost or the first appointment, the personnel officer could simply forget to draw up the document), etc. d.
• It is necessary to find out whether the employee changed his last name before joining the company or already while working in it, and check whether the work book is in the safe under the old last name.

We issue a duplicate

If after a few days the book is still not found, it is better to immediately begin processing its duplicate.

Attention! According to Art. 31 of Chapter 3 of the Decree “On Work Books”, the employer is obliged to issue it within 15 days from the date of receipt.

Several scenarios are possible:

1. The situation, if the employee has not worked anywhere before this moment or worked unofficially , is the simplest. The personnel officer draws up a duplicate based on the data from the employment order and other documents of his organization. You can read how to correctly make all the entries in Art. 7 “Features of filling out a duplicate work book” of the Resolution of the Ministry of Labor. Do not forget to provide supporting certificates to the employee; they will be very useful to him when applying for a pension.
2. If the employee has previously worked in different companies , the situation is more complicated. Here it is important not to lose a friendly relationship with a colleague, because in order to issue a duplicate, information from all previous places of work will be required. Many companies may refuse to send such certificates by mail, insisting that the employee come to them in person or the organization makes an official request to their company (the preparation of a duplicate may take a long time).
3. The most unpleasant option is if the old enterprise no longer exists . But the situation is not so tragic, although the restoration of labor will take much longer than in the two previous cases. When a company is reorganized or merged with another, all documents must be kept in the new company. Any organization in the process of its liquidation is obliged to deposit all personnel and accounting documents in the state archive. You can make a request to the state archive at the place of the company’s past existence. If there is no response or the papers have not been saved, you can contact the Pension Fund with the same request. True, this option is suitable only if the employee worked at this enterprise relatively recently, since registration of insured persons in the compulsory pension insurance system was introduced not so long ago.

How to restore a book if an organization is liquidated

In the event that a person was to blame for the loss of a work book, he must restore all the entries in it himself. To do this, it is necessary to go around all the enterprises where he previously worked and receive information regarding the length of service and position in the form of certificates.

If all enterprises are located in the same city, then recovery may take only a week, but if a person previously worked in different cities, then much more time will have to be spent. But that's not all the problems.

It happens that the enterprise where a person previously worked was liquidated or underwent reorganization. In this case, the worries become even greater. In addition to the fact that the owner of the labor force will have to visit organizations, he will only be able to obtain information regarding liquidated enterprises in the archives.

In this case, it may take a lot of time to find the required documentation. In some cases, the Pension Fund can help in finding the required data. It happens that even in the archives there is no information or a person cannot access the information.

But even in this case one cannot despair. Everyone has the right to confirm their work activity, and if there is no information regarding the liquidated enterprise and the person’s work at it, then the court will help.

This authority will send requests to all necessary government bodies, which will allow them to obtain confirmation of the person’s work and experience. It is very good if it is possible to involve former employees of a liquidated enterprise who could confirm the existence of the organization and the fact that the owner of the lost work book worked in it.

If the organization is liquidated, you must contact the archive. A certificate will be issued with all the information. Invalid entries will not be indicated in the certificate. If the organization has been reorganized, you need to contact the HR department.

When restoring, the data is entered without abbreviations, in accordance with the rules and instructions established by law. To fill out the duplicate, use a pen with black, purple or blue ink.

When restoring a document, you must comply with:

• Correct writing order;
• Reliability of information.

All entries are made in the state language.

Restoration responsibilities are assigned to the last employer if the citizen writes an application for a duplicate. The citizen himself decides who to consider as his last employer. Loss or damage to the book can be reported when applying for a new job; in this case, a duplicate must be issued by the new employer.

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Even if the document was lost due to the fault of the employee, or after dismissal, he must go to his last boss, who, in turn, will send the former employee to the personnel department. The recovery period is 15 days (calendar). The citizen must sign for the receipt of a new document.

Restoration through the state archive This method is relevant in the following circumstances:

1. Previous places of work are closed.
2. The Pension Fund does not have the required information.

In all other situations, it makes sense to use other methods, since restoration through an archive is a labor-intensive procedure. To obtain the required information, you need to send a written request. However, you need to be prepared for the fact that the answer will not come soon

IMPORTANT! If an employee worked on a rotational basis, then requests must be sent to regional archives. What to do if your last job was liquidated? To get reinstated, you need to go to your previous employer.

If this company was liquidated, then going to the Pension Fund or the archives is pointless, since the employee cannot independently make records of his work experience. The only way out is to go to court.

There is no special regulation for the restoration of work books lost due to the fault of the employer. Therefore, you should follow the procedure approved for the restoration of books lost due to the fault of the employee1. We are talking about issuing a duplicate work book.

We issue a duplicate

In all cases, the duplicate is issued by the employer only at the last place of work. Previous employers do not make entries in the duplicate2.

What to do if the employer has lost the work book? In this case, oddly enough, the main actions will need to be performed by the employee. Namely:

• contact the employer with a statement about the loss of the work book (clause 31 of the Rules approved by Decree of the Government of Russia dated April 16, 2003 No. 225);
• wait until the employer issues a duplicate within 15 days after receiving the application (clause 32 of the Rules).

This publication describes how to issue a duplicate.

The duplicate contains the following information:

• about the employee’s length of service - until the conclusion of the contract with the current employer;
• current labor function of the employee, his awards.

Data on experience is compiled on the basis of documents that can be requested:

• at the previous employer;
• in the State Archive;
• in the Pension Fund;
• from other persons capable of providing such information (if necessary, in court).

In case of mass loss of work records, the main actions are carried out by the employer - in the manner specified in clause 34 of the Rules. In this case, a special commission is established that issues duplicates.

However, despite the fact that if a single copy of a work book is lost, a significant amount of responsibilities related to the preparation of duplicates is assigned to the employee, the guilty employer should not stand aside.

In addition to the above obligation, the law establishes strict sanctions for the employer for the loss of a work book.

It is necessary to find out whose fault the work was lost.

Loss of employment is unpleasant. It’s especially unpleasant if it happened through someone else’s fault. In the workplace, loss of employment can happen for various reasons:

1. Due to an emergency - fire, building collapse, etc.;
2. Due to the negligent attitude of employees, the book was stolen, it ended up with other documents, or was mistakenly thrown away;
3. The book was damaged - by management, the personnel department or an employee. For example, coffee was spilled on it or it was accidentally torn.

The algorithm for restoring a work book if it was lost due to the fault of the employee is as follows:

1. The employee contacts the organization where he was last employed or is currently on staff and writes an application for the issuance of a duplicate book.
2. The employer reviews the application within 2 weeks and then issues a duplicate. It is during this period that the request of the former employee must be satisfied.

The employer is not required to include information about the former employee’s past places of work in the new document. In the work book, he indicates the total length of service in other companies without specifying their names and contact information on the basis of orders, labor agreements and other papers previously provided by the employee.

The owner of the book cannot fill out the book on his own. The notes are made by a member of the HR department. In addition, if the employee has previously received awards and incentives for his work, this information must also be entered.

The following documentation must be attached to the application:

• orders for recruitment or dismissal,
• old labor agreements or their notarized photocopies,
• copies of pay slips,
• Statement from the pension insurance system account.

The application must be addressed to the immediate supervisor of the HR department. It must indicate the request for the restoration of the document, as well as the reasons for its loss.

If you have lost your work book, what to do when the organization actually no longer exists? In this case, the employee should contact the Pension Fund branch or the state archive. In addition, the document can be restored through the court.

However, the process of restoring information about the length of service of a liquidated employer is quite complex. In order to obtain a certificate of experience, you must first send a written request or appear in person at the branch of the state archive where the documents of the pre-existing enterprise are stored. If the archive refuses to provide information, the employee can file a lawsuit.

If you have lost your work book, what should you do if it is impossible to restore it through your employer? To do this, you can contact the same authorities as when liquidating an organization, namely:

• to the pension fund department,
• in the state archives,
• to court.

At the PFRF branch, you must personally write an application to restore your work book. You can also send it by registered mail with notification. The procedure takes about 2 weeks.

The process of restoring a book through the state archive takes longer. To do this, you need to send a written request to the local branch of the state archives.

The longest way to restore a work record is to go to court. During the investigation process, inquiries are sent to former employers. When the company is liquidated or the authenticity of the information cannot be verified, witness testimony is used.

An organization can lose its work record for many reasons.

What to do if the loss of the document occurred due to circumstances beyond the control of the employer, for example, during a natural disaster. In this situation, the organization creates a special commission to investigate the fact of the loss of the work book.

It must include the immediate manager of the enterprise or his legal representative, as well as an employee of one of the executive authorities. After an investigation into the reasons has been carried out, an act is drawn up, on the basis of which a duplicate document is issued.

And if, due to disrespect or negligence towards an employee, the organization has lost its work book, what should it do? In this case, the employer faces administrative liability in the form of a fine. In this case, those employees through whose fault it occurred will be responsible for the loss. To restore your work book, you must request in writing from the organization:

• orders for enrollment,
• a copy of the employment agreement,
• personal account number where wages or a 2-NDFL certificate are sent.

Employer's liability for loss of employment

Chapter VIII of Government Resolution No. 225 “On Work Books” states that the legal obligation to keep a work book during the period of work rests entirely with the employer. He is legally liable for failure to comply with this regulation.

To restore justice, an employee can resort to the help of the Labor Inspectorate or go to court:

1. If the employer, for various reasons, delays issuing the work book (by law he is obliged to give it back on the day of dismissal) and the victim does not have the opportunity to work in the new organization, then in accordance with Art. 234 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the former employer must finance all the hours of work missed due to this situation.
2. If an employee was forced to independently restore a lost book due to the fault of the employer, then he has reason to claim full compensation for all monetary expenses (travel to another city, costs of purchasing forms, photocopies of papers, consultation with a lawyer, collection of certificates, etc.) .
3. In the case where the employee also suffered moral damage, then, according to Art. 237 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, he has the opportunity to receive monetary compensation if he can confirm the fact of these episodes.

The law provides for quite effective administrative penalties:

• According to paragraph 1. Art. 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses “Violation of labor legislation”, a fine of 1 thousand to 5 thousand rubles is imposed on a small company (without the formation of a legal entity), and on a legal entity - from 30,000 to 50,000 rubles.
• If an employer or his authorized person repeatedly fails to comply with labor legislation, then, in accordance with paragraph 2 of Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, an official of a small company (without forming a legal entity) is subject to a fine of 10,000 to 20,000 rubles, or the authorized person is disqualified for a period of 1 up to 3 years. For a legal entity - from 50,000 to 70,000 rubles or disqualification of an authorized person for a period of 1 to 3 years.

Important! Violation of standards for storing work records in accordance with Art. 13.20. “Violation of the rules for storing archival documents” entails a penalty in the amount of 300 to 500 rubles.

Of course, the employer or his authorized person is unlikely to go to prison for losing a work book, but in case of gross and flagrant violations, he can be brought to criminal liability:

• if the employer intentionally tore, threw out or damaged the work book (Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Article 325 “Theft or damage to documents...”);
• the employer did not try to prevent a situation that resulted in a massive loss of documents or created unsuitable conditions for their safety (Article 293 “Negligence” of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation);
• the employer stated rudely that he did not intend to give the employee his document (Article 140 “Refusal to provide information to a citizen”).

Who is doing the restoration?

Restoring a book is a complex procedure.

As mentioned above, the restoration of a lost or damaged document is always carried out by the one who allowed it. That is, if an employee spilled coffee or tea on a document personally, then he is responsible for restoring it.

If damage or loss occurred due to the fault of a personnel employee, manager or other employee, then the employing company, represented by the director or the main founder, is responsible for restoring the book.

In addition, before you start restoring your work record, you should carefully think about where it might have been lost. It often happens that after a document is restored, the loss is found some time later.

The labor restoration procedure is a rather complex process, and it is worth resorting to only if all other measures to search or restore the document have failed.

If the work book was lost while the person was working at the enterprise, then the restoration should be handled directly by the employer. At the legislative level, it is stated that the work book must be stored in a protected place.

As for all other cases, a person can easily use a copy certified by the employer or an extract from the employment record. This is the main reason that responsibility for the safety of the work record falls on the shoulders of the employer.

If a person received documents in hand and then lost them, then the citizen himself must deal with the restoration. The Government Decree “On Work Books” states that a person who has lost his work book must submit a corresponding application to his last place of work.

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A duplicate of the work must contain:

1. information about the length of service before the person entered the current place of work, which must be confirmed by relevant documents}
2. complete information regarding awards, penalties and other information regarding the work that was entered into the work book.

The issuance of a work book is a free service, but the employer has the right to request a fee for it, which will include the cost of a new form. As mentioned above, if the employer is involved in the restoration, then the person only needs to submit an application and wait to receive the work book.

In the same case, if all records in the work record are restored directly by the owner of the work record, then he will have to work hard. This procedure can take a very long time.

The best option would be to restore the work record from a previously made photocopy. True, it must be certified, which a personnel service employee or other authorized person at any place of work can help with.

• cover page with information about the employee}
• all pages with entries regarding a person’s work and merits, starting from the first to the last.

If you have a complete copy of the work book, the process of issuing a duplicate may take a matter of days. After all, the personnel officer will only need to transfer the entries to a new work book form. Those entries that were declared invalid in the old work book will not be included in the issued duplicate.