Working under an employment contract without a work book: pros and cons, does it count towards seniority?

Last modified: January 2021

There are situations when a citizen is hired under an employment contract without a work book. In some cases this is done legally. In others, the employer deliberately evades the obligation to formalize the relationship properly. In this way, it reduces the costs of social and tax contributions.

Often employees agree to unfavorable conditions. As a result, they lose the protection of the law and are deprived of their benefits and payments. The employer, in turn, risks getting into trouble in the event of an unexpected inspection by regulatory authorities.

Legal grounds for working without a work book

As a general rule, a citizen must provide a work record book along with an application for employment. It contains information about the employee’s activities.

The law allows not to keep a document in exceptional cases:

the citizen gets a part-time job with a second employer;
the employer is an individual without registration as an individual entrepreneur.

In case of part-time work, the work book is stored in the personnel department at the main place of employment. A record of the second job is entered at the request of the employee. If the employer is a citizen, he does not have the right to draw up this document.

Example 1. E.V. Frolov is employed in. In his free time from his main job, he works in. The citizen signed an agreement with the second employer without presenting a work book. The document is maintained by the personnel department.

Important! It is allowed to hire a citizen who is employed for the first time without a work book. The employer draws up the document immediately after the conclusion of the agreement. Temporary work under a contract without a work book is also allowed if it is lost and an application for reinstatement has been received.

Tip 5: How not to lose your seniority

Work experience is a set of periods of a person’s working or social activity. Its calculation is carried out in the manner established by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. The receipt of guarantees and compensation provided for by current laws and regulations of the Government of the Russian Federation depends on the length of work experience. Therefore, it is important not to lose your experience and take into account all the periods when you received official wages or social benefits.

The document in which the employer is obliged to record all periods when a person worked at his enterprise is a work book of the established form. Based on the entries made in it, your total length of service will be calculated. The duration of your work in each company must be recorded - indicating the date when you began performing your duties and the date of dismissal. All records made by the HR department must be certified by the seal of the enterprise.

Often employers do not want to make timely records of hiring, since from that moment they will have to pay taxes to the budget for hired employees. If you do not want to lose your seniority, demand from your employer that all entries in your work book regarding employment are made in a timely manner. The employer is obliged to do this no later than 3 days after you start working at his enterprise. It does not matter whether you are employed on a temporary or permanent basis.

The concept of “continuous work experience” no longer exists - the period of time between dismissal and placement in a new job can be arbitrarily large. But keep in mind that periods of temporary disability during which you officially received benefits from the state are also taken into account when calculating your length of service.

Periods of participation in public works, moving and looking for work in the direction of the state employment service, or serving a criminal sentence, confirmed by relevant documents, will also be included in your work experience. Collect and store all necessary documents confirming the temporary impossibility of your employment.

In the event that you were forced to leave work to care for a disabled person of group 1, a disabled child or an elderly relative whose age exceeds 80 years, be sure to register with the social insurance authorities. This will also allow you to include this period in your total work history.

Monitor the correctness of making entries and filling out the work book. They must be easily readable, and the company's seals must be clear and smudge-free.

How to register a citizen for work without a work book?

Let us consider in detail the features of registering relationships without a work book.

Admission procedure

If an employee takes a part-time job, you will need to fill out a job application. The document is drawn up in free form.

In practice, the following data is entered into it:

about the employer;
about the employee;
request to be hired as a part-time employee;
date;
signature.

The application is accompanied by a standard list of documentation, with the exception of the work book.

If a citizen intends to work for an individual without the formation of an individual entrepreneur, there is no need to write an application. It is enough to conclude an agreement.

You should know! A citizen has the right to hire an employee under an employment agreement if the activity is not of a commercial nature. For example, nanny, maid, cook, personal assistant. The parties agree on the terms of cooperation individually.

Signing an employment contract

The contract for part-time work is drawn up taking into account the norms of Chapter 44 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

The agreement must include the following sections:

subject: position, workplace, period of validity, start date of duties, information about part-time work;
rights and obligations of participants;
conditions for payment of wages;
working hours;
provisions on rest and leave;
other conditions;
details and signatures.

Thus, the document must contain the same rights and guarantees as for main employees.

An agreement between individuals is concluded according to the rules of Article 303 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. It includes all mandatory conditions that are essential for both parties.

The employer is obliged:

draw up an agreement in writing;
pay obligatory payments;
issue SNILS to the employee;
register the agreement with the local government authority.

The document can be signed for either an indefinite or a definite period. Information about the employer is entered on the basis of a passport, tax registration certificate.

The employee provides:

passport;
TIN;
SNILS;
document confirming education, if required.

For some types of work you need to provide a medical certificate.

Example 2. E.B Ignatieva gets a job with A.L Pavlenko as a child’s nanny. The employer asked to bring a diploma of pedagogical education, a medical certificate with tests for HIV, hepatitis, a report from a narcologist and a psychiatrist, as well as a certificate of no criminal record. After providing the required documents, an agreement was signed between the individuals.

How to confirm your insurance experience?

In practice, the question arises whether the length of service is valid in the case of work under an employment contract drawn up without a work book.

Currently, instead of the concept of length of service, insurance experience is used. According to the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated October 2, 2014 No. 1015, in the absence of a work book, the length of service is confirmed by an employment agreement.

The document will be required if the citizen’s period of activity was not reflected in the pension insurance system. The employer is responsible for paying pension contributions, so information about employment is reflected in the Pension Fund database.

The contract employment contract is included in the length of service

Work carried out under a contract before January 1, 1992 is not included in either the insurance period or the general labor period. Labor activities carried out after this date began to be included in the pension period, but only if specific conditions were met:

in the general labor contract in the presence of a contract agreement and a certificate of completion of work;
in the insurance company, if insurance premiums were transferred to the Pension Fund under this agreement.

This point is indicated in Art. Chapter 11 III of the Law “On Insurance Pensions” dated December 28, 2013 No. 400-FZ. It states that the insurance period includes only those periods of work that were carried out in Russia and for which pension insurance contributions were calculated and transferred.

The difference between an employment contract and a civil law agreement

Often, an employment agreement drawn up without a work book is confused with a civil law contract.
It is signed within the framework of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, and not the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Let's look at the main differences between the two agreements:

Employment contract	Civil contract
Compiled in accordance with the Labor Code of the Russian Federation	Compiled in accordance with the Civil Code of the Russian Federation
The participants are the employee and the employer	The participants are the customer and the contractor
Internship in progress	Experience is not calculated
Can be concluded for an indefinite period	Concluded for a specific period
Salaries must be paid twice a month	Payment terms are agreed upon by the parties
An employee performs job duties for a long time without any final result.	The Contractor provides services or performs work within the agreed scope with the final results
The employer provides the citizen with working conditions	The citizen arranges his own workplace
The employee enjoys guarantees and compensation in accordance with the Labor Code of the Russian Federation	Social guarantees are not provided to the performer

Important point! If a civil contract has been concluded with an employee, but in fact it is an employment contract, the court has the right to reclassify it.

Example 3. The LLC company concluded with Yu.V. Shiryaev civil contract for waste collection services. The FSS conducted a scheduled inspection. During which he established that, in fact, an employment contract had been concluded with the citizen. The company was fined for failure to pay contributions to the fund. The LLC appealed the FSS decision in court. During the judicial review of the dispute, it was established that, under the terms of the agreement, the employee must perform work in a specific specialty. Labor is long-term. Remuneration is paid at certain intervals. The court concluded that the agreement was concluded within the framework of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

Is the length of service covered by a fixed-term employment contract?

Constitution of the Russian Federation to the extent that in the system of current legal regulation the mechanism established by them for social protection of disabled family members of a judge (retired judge) who died due to reasons not related to his official activities, which were his dependents, does not guarantee these persons pension provision in the event of the loss of a breadwinner in an amount comparable to the lost family income in the form of a judge’s salary (the monthly lifelong salary of a retired judge), on conditions determined taking into account his constitutional and legal status and at least no worse than those provided for family members of persons who carried out labor or other socially useful activities and, in connection with this, were subject to compulsory pension insurance, according to the Resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of July 10, 2007.

Pros and cons of working without a work book

Employment under a civil contract without an entry in the work book has its pros and cons.

Benefits for the employee:

free schedule;
the ability to work with several customers;
higher income compared to registration under the Labor Code of the Russian Federation;
The customer controls only the final result.

However, the disadvantages of such cooperation are the lack of contributions to insurance funds, guaranteed vacation, sick leave payments, and insurance coverage.

It is beneficial for an employer to register a citizen under a civil law agreement, since there is no need to prepare a workplace, monitor compliance with safety regulations, ensure proper working and rest conditions, or pay vacation pay.

We must remember! If a citizen gets a part-time job or with an individual on the basis of an employment agreement, he is not deprived of the right to paid leave and sick leave. The employer also transfers insurance payments for him, so the length of service is not lost.

Employer's liability

If a company illegally signed an agreement with an employee without a work book, it bears administrative responsibility.
Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation provides for the following punishment:

Intruder	Fine
employee	1,000-5,000 rub. (or warning)
entrepreneur	1,000-5,000 rub.
firm	30,000-50,000 rub.

Responsibility for evading the execution of an employment agreement or signing a civil law agreement is as follows:

Intruder	Fine
employee	10,000-20,000 rub.
entrepreneur	5,000-10,000 rub.
firm	50,000-100,000 rub.

The employer is obliged to keep a work book and conclude an agreement with the person under the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. In case of violations, the employee has the right to file a complaint with the labor inspectorate or court. These facts are also established during scheduled and unscheduled inspections by regulatory authorities.

Is the length of service covered under a contract for paid services?

Independent payments are made only by “self-employed”: individual entrepreneurs, lawyers, notaries working under the patent system, etc. You won’t be able to make payments yourself, you can only control them.

I'm wondering if work under a contract is included in the total length of service?

Olga Semyonovna! There are labor relations and civil law. Only the first ones are included in the work experience. Although many civil law contracts today are sham transactions, and labor relations are hidden under them.

I work in an LLC under a contract, they collect taxes. Is this time included in the length of service?

Hello! It’s not clear what kind of agreement this is? And what kind of experience are we talking about? Most likely about work experience. Please provide more information to resolve your issue.

Is length of service counted when working under a civil contract? All contributions, including to the pension fund, are made.

According to paragraph 7 of the Rules, the insurance period is determined when assigning benefits on the day of the occurrence of the corresponding insured event (temporary disability, maternity leave). In this connection, the first day of the occurrence of an insured event is not taken into account when calculating the insurance period.