The right to remuneration for work is guaranteed by the Labor Code. But not all employers comply with labor legislation. When an employee does not receive wages on time, the question arises of how to file a claim for payment of wages.
It is better not to rely on the mercy of the company management and not wait for your salary to be paid. Practice shows: if employees do not take any action, delays become a regular occurrence, and payments are delayed for a long time. We warn you that an employer breaks the law when it delays payments.
The legal instruction “33 Yurista.ru” will tell you how to force an unscrupulous employer to pay wages. He will explain what to do if the company delays payments, and will teach how to file complaints to the labor inspectorate and other authorized government bodies.
What to do if your salary is not transferred?
When management delays payments, you need to act consistently in accordance with the norms of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
Algorithm of action in case of non-payment of wages
- Contact the company management. Take advantage of the right provided by Art. 142 TK. You don’t have to go to work if your wages are delayed for more than fifteen days. Be sure to notify your manager in writing that you will not be performing your duties.
Important! If management notifies you of their readiness to pay wages, you will need to go to work the next day after receiving the notification.
Not every worker can go on strike. The categories that cannot participate in strikes are listed by the Labor Code. For example, civil servants cannot interrupt their duties, even if management has delayed payment of wages.
- File a complaint with labor inspectorate specialists. The job of labor inspectors is to protect workers' rights and check whether companies are complying with the law. Company management does not like inspections. Inspectors will come and check your documents. They will probably find other violations besides delayed wages. Fines will be issued. Delays in payment of remuneration will cost the company's management dearly. Therefore, a complaint to the labor inspectorate will not please your employer. The legislation does not establish as such a form of complaint. Therefore, indicate all the basic information about the violation: the name of the company, your position, the period of delay in remuneration.
- File a complaint with the prosecutor's office. The application can be submitted to the supervisory authority in person or sent by mail. The prosecutor authorizes an inspection to identify violations of workers' rights. The time period for consideration of appeals is thirty days in accordance with the Law “On the procedure for considering appeals and complaints of citizens.”
When can work be suspended due to non-payment of wages?
If wages are not paid, the worker has the right to suspend work in the company. To ensure that his actions do not contradict current legislation, it is important to pay attention to certain conditions.
One of these is the moment of suspension of work. An employee has the right to stop performing his job duties if wages are not paid after 15 days have passed from the start of the delay.
He may not go to work starting from the 16th day of lack of funds.
It is equally important to pay attention to the fact that the employer must be warned about the employee’s intentions. To do this, the latter needs to prepare and submit to the management of the enterprise a special statement, which indicates the fact of absence from work from a certain date. Ideally, the receipt of the document should be recorded by the secretary.
In Art. 142 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation reflects situations in which an employee cannot suspend work if wages are not paid. Among these circumstances are the following:
- declaration of a state of emergency or martial law;
- carrying out emergency, rescue and other similar work;
- disaster relief;
- servicing particularly hazardous production.
Ambulance workers, military organizations and government agencies, as well as government employees cannot refuse to work using the technology described above.
How to write a letter of absence from work if wages are delayed for more than 15 days?
In the labor documentation in force in the Russian Federation, there is no single sample application for absence from work due to non-payment of wages. It follows from this that the document is drawn up in free form. When compiling it, it is necessary to follow the rules of spelling and adhere to the business style of the narrative.
There should be no errors in the application. All information must be presented correctly, clearly and concisely.
In the main part of the notification, it is necessary to make a reference to the article of legislation on the basis of which the document is drawn up and the requirements are put forward. In this case, this is Article 142 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
The approximate structure of the statement is as follows:
- full name of the company;
- initials and position of the main manager (recipient of the application);
- Title of the document;
- initials of the employee, his position;
- the date of payment of wages established by the employment contract;
- period and amount of debt;
- date of suspension of the employee’s professional activities;
- date of registration of the application for absence from work;
- personal signature of a specialist.
The document should be prepared in 2 copies. One of them must be marked with acceptance; the second form remains with the employee.
In the first days of non-payment of wages, an employee can contact management with a complaint in writing. There is no unified form for its registration.
During downtime that is considered forced, the employee can seek help from the body responsible for resolving such issues - the labor inspectorate. Before contacting the organization, the employee must file a complaint.
The employee can also turn to the prosecutor’s office or court for help. In this case, in addition to payment of wages, a working citizen has the right to demand monetary compensation.
Complaints to the State Tax Inspectorate about delayed wages can be found here.
Applications to the prosecutor's office about delayed payment of wages can be found here.
file a lawsuit to collect wages in this article.
due to delays in wages and non-payment on time.
How to file a claim for payment of wages?
The judge accepts the claim when the document is drawn up in accordance with the requirements of the Civil Procedure Code. Therefore, take into account the requirements of the law when drawing up an application. The statement of claim for recovery of wages (sample document) contains three parts. The document makes an introduction, describes the essence of the violations, and lists the plaintiff’s demands.
5 main points of a wage recovery claim
- Name of the judicial authority.
- Name of the defendant. The defendant is the company that withholds employee benefits.
- Last name, first name, patronymic and passport details of the applicant.
- Evidence of the fact of labor relations. The details of the agreement, the date and number of the employment order are indicated.
- The essence of the violations committed by the employer. Specify the time of delay in wages.
- The plaintiff indicates his demands.
Important! In addition to the payment of the principal amount, penalties may be required. A fine is imposed for using someone else's money. The penalty is accrued from the next day after the delay in payment of remuneration.
4 nuances of filing a claim for recovery of wages.
- An application for recovery of wages must be submitted to the court office at the place where the organization is located. If the organization has branches, the application is sent to the location where the branch is located.
- To calculate the lost remuneration, Resolution No. 922 of December 24, 2007 is used.
- Employees are waived the cost of applying. In this case, the Tax Code exempts from paying the duty.
- The application is drawn up in accordance with the requirements of the Civil Procedure Code.
How to make an application
It is allowed to make a request in free form if the internal document of a particular employer does not approve specific requirements, since at the legal level an application for absence for several hours or several days does not have an established form.
In the document please indicate:
- FULL NAME. and the position of the addressee - the head of the organization, a copy should be sent to the employee’s immediate superior;
- Full name, position and personnel number of the applicant;
- the name of the document is “application”;
- a request to provide a day off and the date of the expected time off;
- the reason or grounds for granting extraordinary leave;
- date of document preparation and signature of the applicant.
The text of the document sometimes begins with the phrase “I ask you to agree on absence from work,” but other wording will not be a violation.
Please submit your request either to the HR department or to an employee authorized to receive such documents in your organization.
We ask for time off at our own expense.
An employee has the right to request permission to be absent from work at his own expense on any working day, providing justification for the reason. We suggest the following wording in the statement:
Based on Art. 128 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, I ask you to grant me leave at my own expense on November 15, 2020 for personal reasons.
Please note: the employer has the right not to agree on temporary absence from the workplace, so before not going to work, obtain a written permission resolution.
Read more: Application for leave at your own expense
Day off for previously worked day
If an employee previously went to work on an official day off, he is entitled to either monetary compensation for the time worked or a day off on another officially working day. When asking for such a day off, it is not necessary to justify the need to provide rest. But it is necessary to indicate the date of the day off that the employee spent at work without reservation.
We recommend writing your application as follows:
In connection with going to work on my day off - October 13, 2020, on the basis of Part 4 of Art. 153 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, I ask you to grant me time off on November 13, 2021.
Read more: Registration of time off according to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation
Take one or more hours off
A whole day is not always needed to resolve a personal issue. An employee has the right to submit an application for absence from work for several hours, if during this time he manages to solve the problems. For the boss to let you go for a short time, a verbal agreement is enough. This is a common practice.
IMPORTANT!
Remember: in accordance with Art. 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, absenteeism is the absence of an employee from the workplace for four hours. Without written approval, you will not be able to confirm your good faith, and in the event of a dispute, it is easier to fire you for absenteeism.
As an example of how to take time off for a short time, apply for 1 hour of absence to go to the clinic with your child.
I ask that you allow me to be absent from my workplace on November 15, 2020 for 1 hour (from 10.00 to 11.00), in connection with a visit to a medical facility with a young child.
Read more: Application for time off
For family reasons
The wording “family circumstances” is streamlined and includes a lot of different events. Some of them, for example, a wedding, the birth of a child or the death of a relative, in accordance with Art. 128 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, unconditionally give the employee unpaid days of rest. In connection with other events, days off are provided in agreement with the employer.
In a statement of absence from work for family reasons, the following wording is used:
Based on Art. 128 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, I ask you to provide me with time off at my own expense on November 11, 2021 to participate in my father’s funeral.
Read more: Who is entitled to administrative leave
Why do you need a claim for unpaid wages?
The claim is needed to protect labor rights and recover wages. The application is drawn up to collect penalties for each day of delay. The employee may also claim compensation for moral damage in a claim. The harm is caused by the very fact of delay in the transfer of remuneration.
A well-drafted claim is needed to substantiate the position of the victim and to receive the amounts of money required by law.
Employees must receive remuneration twice a month (Article 142 of the Labor Code). Specific dates are indicated in local acts approved at the enterprise.
Often employees wait to see whether their salaries will be paid before the weekend or not. The law is on the side of the workers. The company's management is obliged to ensure that remuneration is paid on the eve of weekends and holidays.
Judicial practice in disputes over non-payment of wages.
An analysis of the decisions made shows that the courts side with workers whose remuneration was delayed.
The Nazarovo City Court sided with the plaintiff (decision in case No. 2-428/2017). The construction company delayed payment of wages upon dismissal and did not issue a work book on time.
6 payments that, according to the decision, the defendant must pay in favor of the plaintiff
- Salary debt of more than one hundred and twenty thousand rubles.
- Compensation for delays in work records. The amount is over one hundred twenty-one thousand rubles.
- Reimbursement for unused vacation – 17,119 rubles.
- Interest for delayed salaries - 17,590 rubles.
- Compensation for moral damage – 10,000 rubles.
- Compensation for expenses for a lawyer – 3,500 rubles.
The solution shows that the miser pays twice. A manager who ignores Labor Code norms pays compensation to employees, penalties and compensation for moral damage.