How to document a reprimand to an employee: sample

How to correctly draw up an order for violation of labor discipline

In an order to impose a penalty such as a reprimand on an employee, it is advisable to indicate:

• date and place of drawing up the order;
• name of the employing company;
• number, name of the document (“Order No. ... on reprimand”);
• a text block reflecting the essence of the employee’s violation of labor duties;
• a resolute text block in the first person (“I order...”);
• list of attached documents - if any.

Find out what nuances need to be taken into account when drawing up a reprimand order so that the employee cannot challenge the punishment in court. If you do not have access to the K+ system, get a trial online access for free.

Reprimand procedure

If an employee refuses to perform job duties or treats them irresponsibly, the employer must adhere to the algorithm for applying disciplinary action in the form of a reprimand:

1. Record the fact of violation in the relevant act. It must be signed by two witnesses. They may be other employees.
2. Request an explanatory note from the subordinate. He must provide it within two working days. If this was not done, the employer draws up a statement of lack of explanation.
3. Draw up an order to issue a reprimand, indicating the reason, basis (a memo from another employee or an explanatory note from the violator), and the employee’s personal data.
4. Give the order to the employee for review. He must put his signature on it. If he refuses to sign on it, a corresponding act is drawn up.

The basis for conducting a preliminary check before applying a penalty may be reports from other employees. Most often, they occur if the offender shifts his responsibilities to them, is often absent from the workplace for a long time, or does not do his work at all.

“At the initial stage, the manager must understand whether the actions of the subordinate are a violation or not. To do this, he needs to demand an explanatory note, and after analyzing the situation, make a final decision,” explains legal consultant of BKR-Intercom-Audit A.V. Ivanov.

The order to issue a reprimand does not have a unified form, but must contain the following information:

• Grounds: the fact of the violation itself, as well as reports from other employees and the violator’s explanatory note.
• Description of the situation for which the subordinate is reprimanded.
• Who is responsible for executing the order?
• FULL NAME. and signature of the director and other responsible persons.

Order of reprimand

If an employee refuses to provide an explanation or sign an order, this cannot be an obstacle to imposing a reprimand.

Practical examples

To understand the principles of applying disciplinary action in the form of a reprimand, it is worth familiarizing yourself with illustrative examples:

If we consider the specifics of applying a penalty in the form of a reprimand, you should pay attention to this example:

Warehouse accounting operator Shulgina O.S. violated the deadlines for drawing up accompanying documents, which resulted in the company’s failure to comply with the goods shipment schedule. This constitutes dishonest performance of labor functions, for which the employer, guided by Art. 192 and 193 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, applied a penalty to her in the form of a reprimand, drawing up an order and giving it to the violator for signature.

Who should sign the reprimand order?

First of all, it must be signed by the director of the organization. In accordance with the provisions of Art. 193 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the order must also be endorsed by the employee of the company on whom the disciplinary sanction is imposed, no later than 3 days from the date of publication of the document. If an employee does not want to confirm familiarization with the order with a signature, a report to this effect is drawn up.

EXPLANATIONS from ConsultantPlus: How to calculate the period during which the employer must familiarize the employee with the order to apply a disciplinary sanction in the form of a reprimand if he has a shift work schedule? Are three working days counted according to the organization’s work schedule or according to the employee’s work schedule? Does the time of issuance of the order matter? Read the answers to these and other questions in K+ by getting trial demo access for free.

Rules for reprimanding an employee

The main requirements for the process of issuing a disciplinary sanction are to comply with the algorithm of actions and documentation established by the Labor Code. The procedure takes place in three stages:

1. Organizing the work of the commission to investigate the causes of the offense and identifying the persons responsible for the incident, as well as recording the results of the examination in writing.
2. Receiving an explanatory note from the employee or drawing up a report if the employee refused to provide an explanation.
3. Issuance of an order imposing a penalty.

ATTENTION! The procedures for imposing a disciplinary sanction must be completed within 30 days, otherwise it will not be possible to hold the employee accountable.

Service memo

The memo must be provided by the employee within five working days from the end of the commission’s work. An employee’s refusal to provide this document will not avoid disciplinary action. In this case, the manager will draw up an act of refusal.

The explanatory note is drawn up in free form, indicating the main details of the company, information about the employee, a detailed description of the incident, as well as the date of preparation and a handwritten signature.

Results

An order to impose any type of disciplinary sanction on an employee, including a reprimand, will have legal force only if it is drawn up within the framework of the algorithm provided for by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, including:

• preliminary request for an explanatory note (and drawing up a report on its failure to provide it, if necessary);
• publication and signing of the order by the manager;
• obtaining an employee’s signature confirming the fact of familiarization with the order (or drawing up a report on the employee’s refusal to sign the document).

You can familiarize yourself with other nuances of issuing a reprimand and other disciplinary sanctions provided for by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation in the articles:

• “Reprimand as a disciplinary sanction (nuances)”;
• "Disciplinary sanction order - sample and form."

You can find more complete information on the topic in ConsultantPlus. Free trial access to the system for 2 days.

What does the law say?

All employers should be aware of the time limits for applying disciplinary sanctions, according to Art. 193 Labor Code of the Russian Federation:

• No later than one month from the date of discovery of the offense. This does not include the employee being on sick leave or vacation.
• The maximum period when a disciplinary sanction is imposed is no more than six months from the date of the violation. If it was identified by an audit or accounting check, the period is extended to two years.

Important! An employee can be punished only once for a specific offense. Repeated application of penalties is not permitted.

“The actions of an employee are considered illegal only when they do not comply with the norms of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and other legislative acts. And vice versa: if the actions of an employee meet all the requirements of the law, they cannot be considered unlawful and cannot be punished for them,” says Doctor of Law, scientific director of the Higher School of Law Yu.P. Orlovsky.

If the misconduct was committed by a manager, employees can appeal to a representative body. Based on his application, the employer will consider the possibility of issuing a reprimand or other disciplinary sanction (Article 195 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

Direct manager's orders

An employment contract and internal labor regulations may contain, among other things, the employee’s obligation to carry out the orders of his immediate supervisor.

However, it must be borne in mind that the orders of the immediate supervisor must correspond to the nature of the work assigned to the employee in accordance with the employment contract, since the law directly prohibits requiring an employee to perform work not stipulated by the employment contract, except in cases provided for by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and other federal laws ( Article 60 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). If this condition is not met, the corresponding order of the employer will be unlawful, and the employee’s refusal to comply with it cannot be considered as a violation of labor discipline (see, for example, the ruling of the Investigative Committee in civil cases of the Supreme Court of the Komi Republic dated June 14, 2012 in case No. 33- 2195/2012)

If the specified order corresponds to the nature of the work performed by the employee, in this case, the employee’s failure to comply with the specified order without valid reasons is a violation of labor discipline (appeal ruling of the Investigative Committee for civil cases of the Tambov Regional Court dated July 11, 2012 in case No. 33-1536).

Bonus procedure

As follows from Art. 191 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the issuance of bonuses is the right of the employer and one of the types of incentives for employees who conscientiously perform their job duties.

The bonus, as an incentive and incentive payment, by virtue of part one of Art. 129 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, is an integral part of wages. The employee's wages are established by the employment contract in accordance with the current employer's remuneration systems.

In turn, remuneration systems, including bonus systems, are established by collective agreements, agreements, local regulations in accordance with labor legislation and other regulatory legal acts containing labor law standards (part one of Article 135 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

Thus, the employer has the right to independently determine the procedure for awarding bonuses to employees, including the criteria for calculating bonuses. Consequently, a local regulatory act (regulations on bonuses, etc.) may stipulate that the basis for non-payment of a bonus is a violation of labor discipline. At the same time, the complete deprivation of a bonus for a specific period for violation of labor discipline cannot be regarded as discrimination in wages, but is only a consequence of the employee’s improper performance of his labor (official) duties (determination of the Cassation Board of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated March 29, 2005 N KAS05-148) .

Thus, if an employee’s labor achievements for a certain period did not meet the bonus criteria, the employer will not have the obligation to accrue and pay bonuses for this time. In such a situation, non-awarding of the premium is legal.

At the same time, non-awarding a bonus to an employee must be justified. In the event of a labor dispute, the employer will have to prove in court the existence of the circumstances on the basis of which he decided not to award a bonus to a specific employee. Thus, the employer must have evidence of the employee’s failure to meet bonus targets. In view of this, the failure to record the fact of violation of labor discipline and the failure to impose a disciplinary sanction on the employee may lead to the fact that the employer will not be able to prove the legality of not awarding a bonus to the employee (see, for example, the appeal ruling of the Investigative Committee in civil cases of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Karelia dated December 11, 2012 in case N 33-3396/2012).

At the same time, if the employer can prove the fact of violation of labor discipline by the employee without recording the violation itself on the part of the employee and imposing a disciplinary sanction on him, then the non-awarding of bonuses to the employee in the case under consideration will be lawful (cassation ruling of the St. Petersburg City Court dated March 15, 2012 N 33 -3885/2012).