Duplicate work book: complex registration issues

Despite the constant talk that it is time to cancel work books, organizations still regularly make entries in them, and just as regularly have to resolve issues that arise during their registration. For example, when there are situations in which the organization is obliged to issue a duplicate of this document to the employee. The reasons for this may be different, in particular, if the entry in the book is declared invalid by the court. In this case, in accordance with paragraph 31 of the Rules for maintaining and storing work books, producing work book forms and providing them to employers, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of April 16, 2003 No. 225, as well as paragraph 1.2 of the Instructions for filling out work books (Appendix No. 1 to the resolution Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation dated October 10, 2003 No. 69), an employee who insists on replacing the main working document must write an application to the organization that became his last place of service. And the company, in turn, within fifteen days issues him a duplicate book without the entry declared invalid. In this case, in the upper right corner of the first page of the copy the following inscription is made: “Duplicate”, and on the title page of the “former” book it is written “A duplicate has been issued in return” indicating its series and number.

On a note

If an error was made in the entry in the employee’s work book, this does not give the employee unconditional grounds to demand compensation for his average earnings before the date of the corrections. First you need to figure out whether this mistake is really so terrible that it was the reason for your inability to find a new job.

In order to receive an updated work book, both the employee and the organization need to follow a not at all complicated, but clear algorithm of actions. It would seem that everything is simple. However, firms and employees are not always able to act in accordance with the law: the former constantly “go beyond” the deadlines for issuing copies and make mistakes in new documents, while the latter tend to neglect the procedure for requesting a replacement book and present employers’ mistakes on a gigantic scale in order to “ withdraw money from the enterprise for almost any “sideways step”.

This is exactly what happened with a St. Petersburg organization that fired one of its employees on the unsightly grounds set out in paragraph 8 of part 1 of Article 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (commitment by an employee performing educational functions of an immoral offense incompatible with the continuation of this work).

Duplicate

Such a document is issued in cases of loss or unsuitability of the original book, for example, after floods, fires, or careless handling that led to mechanical damage. If the cause was damage, on the first page of the document there is the inscription “a duplicate was issued instead.” In case of loss, there will only be a “duplicate” mark.

Conditions that allow you to obtain a duplicate work book:

• Loss of both the book itself and the insert. The owner is obliged to notify the administration about the incident. The period for making and issuing a copy is 15 calendar days.
• The book is unusable due to time, accident, or careless handling.
• Invalidation of entries in a document.
• In cases of employees who were charged with criminal charges but were acquitted.
• If the cause of unsuitability or loss was natural disasters and factors beyond human control.

More valuable to yourself

By the way, not all companies believe that recognizing a dismissal record as illegal is a sufficient reason for issuing a duplicate work book to an employee (even if the employee wrote a corresponding application). After all, the wording challenged in court can simply be crossed out! And next to it write that “the entry was declared invalid on the basis of...”. This is not the author’s fantasy, but, unfortunately, a fact confirmed many times in practice, which can lead an intractable organization straight to court. Let me give you the following incident as an example.

One employee was dismissed from the company due to the loss of confidence of the financially responsible person for committing guilty actions under paragraph 7 of part 1 of Article 81 of the Labor Code with a corresponding entry about this in the work book. As in the previous case, the employee challenged the unsavory wording. And on the basis of a court ruling, the person who fired him from the company carefully indicated that the record of dismissal at the initiative of the employer due to loss of trust is considered invalid, he was dismissed at his own request (i.e., under clause 3, part 1, article 77 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation) .

Having received such a book in his hands, the former employee repeatedly turned to the ex-employer with a request to issue him a duplicate without making an entry that was declared invalid. However, the company refused each time, citing the fact that the last entry was made in full accordance with the court's ruling. In such a situation, a person had no choice but to go to court for protection of his peahens.

Having familiarized themselves with the materials of the case, the servants of Themis immediately came to the conclusion that the refusal to issue a duplicate was illegal. The plaintiff’s demand to issue him a duplicate without an entry declared invalid is absolutely legal and justified, and must be satisfied by virtue of paragraph 33 of the Rules for maintaining and storing work books (Appeal ruling of the Samara Regional Court dated November 19, 2012 in case No. 33-10574) .

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Who restores the work book?

The restoration procedure must be undertaken by the last employer. But he will undertake this only after receiving a correctly completed statement of loss. It is not uncommon to see cases where employees “accidentally” lost a document in order to hide, for example, dismissal under an article. In this case, you can apply for a duplicate to an earlier employer, who will not dare refuse.

When applying for a job, you can tell HR officers that you don’t have a document, write a corresponding request and receive a duplicate in your new place.

In what cases is it necessary

There are 3 situations when you need to get a duplicate:

• the owner or employer has lost the original. This includes loss of documents due to valid reasons;
• the document can no longer be used. For example, it was doused with water, burned or torn;
• Errors were found in the papers, which the court declared invalid. A duplicate is issued at the request of the owner of the original.

The law establishes that a person is obliged to contact his last employer for a duplicate. However, there are no provisions that would indicate penalties in case of loss of a book due to a person’s fault.

Statement

As already mentioned, no one will issue a duplicate without a prior application. This is an official document that must be drawn up in accordance with regulations. In order to hurry up HR officers, it is better to follow the unwritten rules for drawing up and directly delivering an application:

• Since, according to the law (in theory), a duplicate is issued at the last place of work, the name of the organization or enterprise must appear in the first paragraph of the document.
• A new line should indicate the reason for the lack of a work record, ranging from theft and fires to banal inattention. Advice: if the document was lost due to the fault of the employee, then it is better to indicate a reason that is more compelling than “just lost.”
• If the document was damaged, but is available, it is better to attach it as evidence.
• If there is a reference to theft, it is necessary to submit a copy of the statement to the police.
• The third paragraph is meant to remind HR that no matter how busy they are, they are still required to provide you with a duplicate after the 15 day period.
• To ensure that the application does not get lost, immediately make a copy of it, which will come to your defense in the event that the employer fails to comply with the current legislation and its obligations.
• It is very important to know that the 15-day rule does not apply if the current employer is issuing a duplicate.

Issuance procedure

To return confirmation of length of service, an employee just needs to follow a few simple steps:

• find an employer who should handle the re-registration. If a citizen has an official place of work, responsibility for issuing will fall on the current employer. If a citizen is unemployed, he goes to the personnel department at his last place of work. They will keep a copy of the former employee’s work record;
• fill out the paperwork for registration and receiving a copy;
• prepare documents confirming the applicant’s grounds. If the employer is to blame for the loss of the book, he prepares the paperwork. However, the employee must assist the entrepreneur so that the business moves faster.

When the papers are prepared, the employee issues a duplicate of the book to the citizen.

Sample order

A copy of the document is issued after checking the official application and signing the order, which must include the following points:

• number and date of completion;
• the reasons why the citizen needed to restore the document;
• signatures decoding the employer and employee.

The order is valid only in written form. When the documents are completed, the applicant reads the order and signs. To issue orders, employers must use established forms. Entries are placed in free columns.

A form is possible.

How to write an application and its sample

Production of a document is required if the original book has disappeared due to the fault of an employee. The standard statement contains the following points:

• Full name and position of the employee who writes the application and the person to whom it is sent;
• evidence of damage, loss or other reasons for which the creation of a duplicate is required;
• request for a copy to be provided to the applicant;
• signature and date.

Documents are allowed to be drawn up on a computer or by hand. Some enterprises have developed their own forms with stamps.

Features of its preparation and delivery

Along with the written application, you need to provide the HR department with all the documents that at least somehow confirm your work activity. These can be work documents with a signature and date, statements and wages.

HR department employees fill out a form indicating:

1. Record number (in order).
2. Date of hiring and dismissal (if any).
3. Name of the organization, position, education and profession of the employee. Reason for removal from position.
4. Numbers of acts in accordance with which entries were made.

Sample

STATEMENT

№ 1111111

On registration of a duplicate work book To (name of the manager's position) Name of the organization Full name of the manager From (full name of the applicant) Position of the employee Name of the workshop, division, etc.

In connection with (the reason for the absence of the document), I ask you to issue me a duplicate of the work book. Previous places of work:

No. Name of the organization, its address Operating period (approximately possible)

Documentation confirming experience: No. Name of document

_________________ Employee signature

A duplicate of the work book has been issued, series TC No. ______________________ “date (in numbers)”_ month in words_year (in numbers) ___________________ Signature of the HR department employee

A typical sample application for restoration of a work record book – download in .doc format (Word file) 24 kb.

By mistake and retribution

By the decision of the Vasileostrovsky District Court of St. Petersburg dated November 14, 2014, the employee’s claims were partially satisfied. The defendant organization was not charged the entire amount claimed by it, but only wages for the period of delay in issuing a duplicate of 142 days, as well as a small compensation for moral damage. The rest of the claim was rejected. However, the plaintiff expected to receive a more impressive amount of money, and decided to appeal the refusal of full compensation to the appeal.

In the appellate instance, the representative of the plaintiff again asked the judges to recover wages from the defendant for the delay in issuing a duplicate work book until the day the court decision was made. But the panel of judges supported the conclusions of their colleagues from the first instance. The judges explained their decision as follows.

According to Article 234 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the employer is obliged to compensate the employee for the earnings he did not receive in all cases of illegal deprivation of his opportunity to work. Such an obligation, in particular, arises if a person was unable to work as a result of a delay in issuing his work book, or the inclusion in it of an incorrect or non-compliant formulation of the reason for dismissal. Further, paragraph 35 of the Rules for maintaining and storing work books states that the company is obliged to issue this document to the employee on the last day of his work. In this case, a record of dismissal must be made in the book. And if the issuance is delayed due to the fault of the company (including due to an error in filling out the document), then it is obliged to compensate the employee for the earnings he did not receive during the entire delay.

On a note

Not all companies believe that recognizing a dismissal record as illegal is a sufficient reason for issuing a duplicate work book to an employee. Such a belief can lead a recalcitrant organization straight to court.

The judges summed up all the periods of time during which the woman, through no fault of her own, waited for a correctly issued book, and the total delay in issuing a duplicate with which she could get a job was 142 working days, and therefore the court justified the defendant in favor of the plaintiff wages were collected for precisely this period of time.

But the plaintiff’s demand to add to this period the time from the date of receipt of the second duplicate to the court’s decision, since the second duplicate, according to her, also contains shortcomings, was not supported by the judges. They pointed out that, firstly, the date of order No. 86 refers to the period of elimination by the defendant of the violations specified in the prosecutor's submission. And secondly, the plaintiff did not prove to the court that this mistake was really so fatal that it prevented her from getting another job.

As for the amount of compensation for moral damage, the judges indicated that the amount claimed by the plaintiff was disproportionate to the harm caused to her and the nature of the violations committed by the defendant. But the amount assigned by the judges of the first instance fully complies with the requirements of the principles of reasonableness and fairness. Therefore, the panel does not see any grounds for collecting compensation for moral damage in the amount claimed by the plaintiff, taking into account the above circumstances (Decision of the Vasileostrovsky District Court of St. Petersburg dated November 14, 2014 and the Appeal Determination of the St. Petersburg City Court dated February 25, 2015 No. 33-2520 / 2-15 in case No. 2-3835/2014).

On the basis of what documents are entries made in the duplicate work book?

Usually, a few papers are enough, such as:

1. Documentation and certificates with the seal and signature of the manager.
2. Orders, their copies, separate extracts from decisions.
3. "Roots" of wages.
4. Orders on hiring, transfer to another position and dismissal.
5. In some cases, you can obtain a court opinion that will confirm the existence of experience.

Each of the submitted documents (except for originals) must be officially certified. Clause 32 of the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of April 16, 2003 No. 225 prohibits entering unconfirmed data on length of service into the work book.

Basic Rules

A duplicate is a document identical to the original. It is a repeat copy without significant differences (clause 22 of section 3 of GOST R 7.0.8-2013 (Rosstandart order No. 1185-st dated 10/17/2013)). For production, the TC form is used, approved by paragraph 1 of Government Decree No. 225 of April 16, 2003.

Let us list the rules by which a duplicate work book is filled out:

• it is not a copy, but contains data similar to the original;
• exception - information that turns out to be unreliable is not included in the new version;
• personal information about the employee is entered;
• positions and positions held are listed;
• internal transfers, renamings, awards and penalties are recorded;
• information about local documents-bases for changing and terminating the employment relationship is entered.

The following data is not included in the new workbook:

• which cannot be documented;
• inaccurate, erroneous and unreliable.

Management is obliged to take all necessary actions and provide the employee with a new document within 15 days (clause 31 of the rules):

1. Prepare a new form.
2. Enter confirmed entries correctly.

What entries are made in the duplicate work book?

Ideally, the same entries are made in the duplicate as in the original document. But it is very difficult to put this into practice, so there are rules regulating the required minimum of entries in the labor record:

• Statements of general and/or continuous work experience that were recorded before joining a new place of work. In this case, there is no need to clarify the periods of work at each of the previous places. The full amount in the format: “number of years-months-days” is sufficient.
• Incentives from your last job (if any).
• Hiring data.
• Name of the enterprise, name of the workshop/division, position, profession and specialty and qualifications.
• If there was a transfer to another position, this must be indicated.
• Information about dismissal (date, reason, order number).
• Next, indicate the number of the document that served as the reason for issuing a duplicate (application and corresponding decision).

Procedure for obtaining a duplicate

When a person is employed, the employer is responsible for storing his work book. If it is lost during this period, it is most often due to the oversight of personnel specialists, less often - in an emergency such as a fire or accident.

Workers lose their books, as a rule, during breaks between employment and then come to a new company without proof of past experience. Another option for loss is when an employee receives a book from the HR department to present to some authority, but does not bring it back.

If an employee is lost

Before restoring a work book if an employee loses it, the personnel officer must receive an application requesting a duplicate and explaining the reasons for the loss. This is the requirement of paragraph 31 of the Rules. The same paragraph stipulates that the personnel service has a maximum of 15 days for recovery.

The time period within which an employee must request a duplicate is not limited by law. The person may come to you the day after the loss or a year later. Issue cannot be refused. Demanding proof of the loss is the same.

To receive a correctly executed duplicate of a work passport, the employee must present documents that confirm his work experience. These acts make it possible to both restore entries in the work book and calculate the total length of service. Your task, as a personnel officer, is to help the person collect justifications. The cost of the form for a duplicate must be withheld from the employee.

If the employer lost

Whether only one book is damaged or there has been a massive loss of these documents, employees should not write any statements. All restoration actions are carried out by the personnel service:

• If one workbook is lost or damaged . It is necessary to calculate the total work experience based on documents in the current company and requesting information from former employers.
• If mass damage occurs . The first step is to obtain a basis for registering duplicates. For this purpose, a special commission is assembled, which, along with the company management, should include representatives of workers and local administration. The commission investigates the circumstances of damage or loss and draws up an act, on the basis of which personnel officers issue duplicate labor documents.

The costs of new forms are borne by the employer.

Restoring a work book by an employer: what documents are needed

To calculate the total length of service, the Rules approved by Government Decree No. 1015 of October 2, 2014 are used. According to this act, the documents that serve as the basis for determining length of service include:

• Employment contract.
• Certificates from previous places of work.
• Archival statements about periods of work with past employers.
• Orders regarding employment or dismissal.
• Salary statements.
• Certificates from collective farms.

Ideally, you need originals. But if they are not there, you can make copies, but they must be certified with wet seals and signatures.

How necessary is it to restore a lost work book?

An employee who does not have a work record is not subject to any type of punishment or sanctions. With the employer, the situation is different: in the event of an inspection, he will certainly be fined for the absence of such an important document. Article 65 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation states that an employer, when hiring a person without a work book, is obliged to accept his application and issue a duplicate. The only exceptions are cases of first employment and part-time work.

It follows from this that it is imperative to restore your employment status, since you simply will not be hired. The negative consequences of the absence of a work permit and its duplicate also include problems that arise when registering a pension. In theory, all copies of information should be stored electronically, but in reality everything is a little more complicated. In case of incorrect calculations, it is very difficult to find the culprit and correct the current situation.

How it happens in practice

The Labor Legislation clearly defines the process of restoring various types of documentation. But there are times when you have to look for alternative solutions. This includes working for shell companies, bankrupt enterprises, fraudulent companies and much more. What to do in such a difficult situation and where to look for help?

• Try sending employers requests for an extract indicating your length of service. Honest employers, even after closing a business, retain documentation and records about employees.
• If you cannot find them (employers), you should go to the State Archives, which will provide the necessary records. In case of illegal existence and/or closure of the company, State. The archive is powerless.
• Contacting the Pension Fund can significantly speed up the process of obtaining data. It should be noted that this is free and will not take you more than 10 days.
• The final authority is the court. It rarely comes to this, but still, it is better to know about this option.