Procedure for reducing a position
A layoff due to job reduction occurs when a company eliminates a position from its staffing schedule. The reasons for such an action can be very different, including financial difficulties of the enterprise, ineffectiveness of employees, reorganization of the company, etc.
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There is a specific, legal and time-tested algorithm for reducing staff.
- The launch of the process should always begin with a written order from the director to exclude a particular position from the staffing table and approval of a new staffing table.
- Then you should decide on those employees who cannot be laid off by law.
- Next, there is a notice of dismissal due to a reduction in the staff of those employees whose jobs are abolished.
However, before dismissing them, the company is obliged to offer them available vacancies that match their qualifications and level of education. If there are no such vacancies or the employee refuses the options offered to him in writing, then the dismissal procedure occurs .
The trade union committee (if there is one at the enterprise) and the employment center must be notified about it in advance.
Consequences of violation of legal norms
Any action of the employer must fully comply with the requirements of labor law. Ignoring certain rules, including untimely notification of staff about the upcoming dismissal, can lead to the following unpleasant consequences.
Expert opinion
Davydov Alexander Yurievich
Civil law consultant with 20 years of practice. Author of numerous articles on legal topics
Bringing to responsibility - for violation of the Labor Code the following types of administrative penalties are provided (Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation):
- Warning;
- Fine (from 1 to 50 thousand rubles).
In addition, a criminal case may even be opened against the employer (in case of violation of the legal rights of a pregnant employee, a person near retirement age, etc.).
The employee can sue - if the dismissal is considered illegal, he will be reinstated to his previous job.
Deadlines for sending notifications
By law, notice of dismissal due to a reduction in position must be given to the employee at least two months before the date of reduction. In this case, the employee must sign that the notification has been received.
If the deadline for sending the notice is violated, then in the future the employee may challenge his dismissal, and the court will most likely take his side.
It should be noted that if a large number of personnel are dismissed at once, which is determined depending on the sector or locality in which the company operates, the employer is obliged to notify employees three months before the date of dismissal (equivalent to the entry into force of the new staffing table).
Dismissal procedure due to upcoming layoffs
The procedure for terminating an employment contract associated with a reduction in staffing levels is as follows:
- The first step is to issue an order reflecting the list of positions subject to reduction, and also indicating the exact date of entry into force of the changes.
- Then management must notify the union and the employment service. This must be done 2 months before the upcoming dismissal. This rule is enshrined in Part 2 of Art. 82 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and in paragraph 2 of Art. 25 of the Law “On Employment in the Russian Federation”. If the reduction is massive, then notification must be sent 3 months before the event.
- Next, the employer needs to identify personnel who, by law, have the right to remain in their current place. Selection is made based on skill level and labor productivity. Employees with the highest values of these indicators must be kept at work (Part 1 of Article 179 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).
- Persons who have been decided to be dismissed are sent a notice of layoff.
- The employer is also obliged to contact the employee in writing with an offer of other available places that are available at the enterprise. The list of such positions can be additionally included in the written warning.
- If a person refuses to move to another vacant position, then the next step is to prepare a dismissal order.
- A note is made in the employee’s personal card, a calculation note is drawn up, and a list of documents is prepared that, by law, must be issued to the dismissed person.
- On the last working day: a work book is presented containing a record of the reason for leaving work; all compensation is paid; a certificate of the employee’s salary for the last 2 years is issued, a document containing information that was sent to the Pension Fund and other papers (at the request of the former employee).
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Who is prohibited from being affected during redundancy?
There are categories of workers who cannot be laid off due to layoffs. These include:
- pregnant women,
- single mothers in whose care there are children under 14 years of age and under 18, if these are children with disabilities,
- persons who have dependent children under three years of age.
They can only be fired if the company is completely liquidated.
It is possible to dismiss minor employees due to staff reduction, but this will require separate permission from a special commission for the protection of the rights of employees under 18 years of age.
The difference between changes in numbers and staffing units (positions)
According to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the same guarantees and compensations are provided for employees who have been reduced in staff or numbers. At the same time, many “inexperienced” citizens believe that these are two identical concepts. However, this point of view is fundamentally wrong.
Expert opinion
Davydov Alexander Yurievich
Civil law consultant with 20 years of practice. Author of numerous articles on legal topics
Thus, a change in number means a decrease (increase) in the number of personnel occupying a specific place . In this case, the position itself is not abolished (added).
For example, the bank's management decided to reduce the number of staff serving the population by firing 3 employees (out of 7). This means that the position “cash worker” itself will remain, but there will only be 4 cashiers.
When staffing levels are reduced, the position itself is abolished. In this case, the employment contract with all employees occupying such a position is terminated.
For example, an organization has a separate position for a marketer. It was decided to abolish it and transfer its functions to the sales department.
Thus, if the company had three marketers, then all of them will be fired.
Rules for writing a notice of job reduction
There is no standard unified notification template, so companies can choose one of two options: either write it in free form or develop their own document template based on their needs. In the second case, the notification form must be registered in the company's accounting policies.
The notification must include a number of required information:
- Name of the organization,
- date of compilation,
- the date when the reduction is expected,
- reason for the reduction
- link to order
- free vacancies available at the enterprise and suitable for the employee.
Reason for staff reduction
As a rule, staff reduction occurs due to:
- optimization of financial costs at the enterprise. The management does not want to support workers, without whom it is quite possible to do, and sends them a corresponding notice.
- liquidation of the company - in this case, all members of the workforce without exception are subject to dismissal.
- reorganization of the company - here the reduction may affect only part of the staff.
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Rules for document preparation
The document can be written by an employee of the organization either by hand or printed on a computer (convenient when a large number of copies are required). It can be issued either on the organization’s letterhead (in this case there is no need to enter company details manually) or on a regular A4 sheet.
The notification is left in two copies , each of which must be signed by the head of the organization. Then one of them is sent to the employee, and the second is registered in the journal of internal documents and is subsequently transferred to the archive of the enterprise.
Example of writing a notice of job reduction
- At the top of the document on the left or right (this does not matter) you need to write the name of the organization, as well as the position, surname, first name, patronymic of the employee to whom the notification is sent.
- Then the name of the document is written in the middle of the line.
- In the main part, the reason for which the decision was made to reduce the position (staff of employees) is first indicated, then the date of the decision is entered and a link to the order (date, month, year of issue and its number).
- After this, the date on which the dismissal is expected to take place is entered into the document, and the available vacancies that were offered to the employee for transfer are also recorded (indicating the salary amount).
- Then the notice must remind you that in case of refusal from available jobs, the employee will be dismissed in accordance with current legislation and the payment of compensation due to him.
- Finally, the form must be signed by the head of the company.
- Under the director's autograph, you need to leave a line for the employee to sign about familiarization with the document.
Drawing up an order
First of all, it is necessary to draw up a local regulatory act. It does not have a special form, so we suggest downloading the following files:
- sample order for job reduction;
- sample order to reduce staff.
The main requirement is to indicate the reason and date of the upcoming reduction, and indicate who it will affect. The updated staffing table must be approved in the same or additional document.
How to send a notification
There are several ways to bring the notice to the attention of the employee.
- The first and simplest: by handing it over personally from hand to hand.
- The second, more time-consuming: send a notification to the employee’s home address by mail (for example, if the employee is on vacation or sick).
- The third option is to read the layoff document out loud to the employee, but in this case, the presence of witnesses or a specially created commission that is authorized to certify that the notice was brought to the attention of the dismissed person is necessary.
In this case, it must be sent by registered mail with return receipt requested - this form of sending guarantees that the addressee received the message.
If the employee refuses notice
In some situations, an employee may refuse to receive notification for various reasons. For example, some employees mistakenly believe that refusal to familiarize themselves in the future will not allow the employer to fire such an employee. However, it is not.
If the employee refuses to familiarize himself with the notice, it is read aloud to him in the presence of two witnesses and an act of refusal to familiarize himself is drawn up. The act of refusal to review is signed by the person who drew up the act and by witnesses confirming the fact that the notice was actually read to the employee.