The employer lost his work book - 445 tips from lawyers and lawyers

There is no need to panic if you lose your work book; it can be easily restored. But, unfortunately, you will have to spend time and effort.
Before restoring it, you need to think about why it was lost. All further actions are based on this. Both the employee and the employer must remember that they are responsible for the documents. If a personnel employee or other responsible person issued a work book not according to the rules, then he is responsible for its loss, and not the employee.

There are two options:

Loss of a document by employee.
The employer or the person responsible for storing the work record is to blame.

In the event that a citizen himself loses a document, the costs and responsibility fall entirely on his shoulders. But don’t be upset, in this case the restoration of the work record is still quite possible.

How to restore a work record

If you lose your work book, there is no need to panic. It is possible to restore it, but this will require efforts to collect information. Sometimes you will have to run, but in some cases the employer will have to run.

It is worth considering
whether it is necessary to restore the document if the employee is just starting to work, without even having a year of experience, and only one entry has been made in the employment record.
It is not necessary to make a duplicate of the document, since Article 65 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation states that in such cases it will be enough to issue a new work book. This will be done by the employer. In the case where the employee has extensive length of service and experience, it is necessary to restore the work book. The employee should contact the employer with a corresponding application.

Each organization must have its own archive of work records. To do this, the state obliges to have a special fireproof cabinet for storing archival documentation.

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If an enterprise disintegrates and no longer exists, all archival documentation is transferred to the state for storage. In such situations, you must contact the Federal Archive at your place of residence.

Where is the archive of work records?

The main office of the company must have an archive of work records.
In the event of the collapse of an organization, the archive can be transferred to a new successor company.
All documents from the company archive can be transferred to the state archives institution.

It is illegal to enter old entries into a new work book. Those who commit this will face criminal liability. These actions will be regarded as forgery of documents .
Therefore, you cannot restore labor records yourself. itself is not correct . If lost, the work document cannot be restored, you can only make a duplicate of it. The duplicate is a valid document that can be presented to calculate length of service.

A new document is issued within 15 days after submitting the application.

Was the book lost?

There are situations when an employee of the HR department looks for a work book for a long time and worries about it, but it is found after some time.

This is not always the fault of the HR manager or another company employee. The book is quite likely to end up in the employee’s home, and the personnel officer may not even think about checking the employee’s personal file, where there is a receipt stating that he temporarily took it, for example, in order to apply for a pension.

First of all, it is recommended to give the HR department a few days to search for:

You need to collect as much information about the book as possible. In the book of accounting and movements of work books, you can see the date and its number upon admission, and look at the books of other employees who got a job on that day.
It is also recommended to look into the employee’s personal file; perhaps there is his receipt stating that he temporarily took the document or did not have it in his hands at the time of hiring (if it was lost or the first appointment, the personnel officer could simply forget to draw up the document), etc. d.
It is necessary to find out whether the employee changed his last name before joining the company or already while working in it, and check whether the work book is in the safe under the old last name.

Reinstatement due to employee fault

In those situations in which the employee himself, for some reason, is to blame for the loss of his work book, he needs to write an application for reinstatement. When filling out, you must not make mistakes in the text . Unemployed people who want to restore their work record must contact their previous place of work. Citizens who have a job must fill out an application at the HR department.

When writing an application for reinstatement, you need to take into account some features:

The application must be written on behalf of the employee to the manager. In other cases, you can write to the company addressed to human resources employees.
The company name must be indicated. Full name of the boss and the employee who is applying.
You must enter the title of the document.
It is indicated why the employee is asking to receive a duplicate.
Must be dated and signed

It is advisable to leave contact information so that the people responsible for restoring the work record .

Why might a work record be lost?

For many, it is obvious that a work book is the most important document for employment. It contains the employee’s work history, which speaks of his professionalism. But besides this, she will be able to say quite a lot about her owner.

Without a work record, it is almost impossible to get a new job. But what could be the reason for an employer to lose a work record? Several options are possible:

Standard loss due to negligence;
Loss due to theft. Moreover, it is worth considering that the responsibility will be borne by the person who had the document. Since we are considering cases of loss by a manager, the theft must be committed directly from him;
Loss caused by various catastrophes (natural disasters) or unusual situations. These may include floods, accidents, fires and even some actions of third parties.

In addition to the above, the employer may deliberately not give out the work book. This is no longer a loss, but a deliberate concealment.

The employer has lost his work book, what should he do?

There are situations when the employer himself loses the work book of his employee. This can happen due to his negligence or emergency situations. And sometimes there is deliberate damage to documents .
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In a situation where the reason for the loss of the document is unclear, and the employer personally does not know the situation as a result of which the employee lost the document. The authorities can create a commission to find out the reasons . It includes employees of the enterprise, employer, trade union members or any other persons knowledgeable in this matter.

After the investigation, the employer creates a meeting report, which will be the basis for issuing a duplicate to the employee.

All costs for creating a duplicate of the work book are borne by the person responsible for its loss. In a situation where the employee himself is to blame, the employer can deduct from the employee’s salary the necessary amount to complete all the documents. If the application for a duplicate has no errors, the duplicate will be issued within 15 days .

If the employer refuses to restore documentation to its employees, and the loss occurred through his fault. It is necessary to contact law enforcement agencies or sue the employer. In case of refusal to reinstate, a fine may be imposed on the employer, for officials in the amount of 1 to 5 thousand rubles, for legal entities from 30 to 50 thousand, under Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

In a situation where the employer is involved in the restoration, the employee will only need to write an application to create a duplicate . All documents necessary for this will be collected by the person responsible for the loss.

Responsibility of the employer for the loss of the work book

If an employer has lost a work book, he is not only obliged to issue a duplicate of this document. He is subject to administrative liability in the event of deliberate loss of his work book.

The work book must be issued no more than two weeks from the date the employee writes an application for a duplicate. If the employer does not issue a completed form, then the amount of delay may be recovered from him in the amount of the employee’s average daily earnings for each day of such delay on the basis of the provisions of Article 234 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

Expert opinion

Mikhailov Vladislav Ivanovich

Lawyer with 6 years of experience. Specializes in family law. Knows everything about the law.

In addition, in the event of a judicial review of the case, a procedure for collecting moral damages may be initiated based on the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation.

During the performance of work duties, a variety of situations may arise. Some of them may be related to work issues, while others may be related to certain circumstances. However, almost all of them can be associated with the human factor. And not all situations can be the fault of the employee himself. Everyone can make mistakes.

But what is especially unpleasant is that even a leader can make mistakes. This is especially true in force majeure circumstances, when the employee simply does not know how to behave.

Among these, it may be that the employer has lost the document of his own employee. In our article we will talk about a specific document.

So, what to do if the employer has lost his work book? More on this later in our article.

How to restore a work record through a pension fund

The work book contains information about a person’s work experience, which affects the amount of the pension. Any legal employer is obliged to contribute to the pension fund a certain percentage of the wages of its employees. In situations where the employer is unable to make a duplicate, you can proceed with restoration through the pension fund.

People who apply to the pension fund to create a duplicate must have documents on hand that contain information about their work and length of service .

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Documents confirming the authenticity of this data will also be required. It is possible to restore documents through a pension fund if the following documents are available:

Employment agreements with organizations in which the citizen worked. Submitted in written format only.
Certificates from employers confirming information about hiring an employee.
Also supporting documents are salary slips.

How to properly file an application for reinstatement

Sample application for issuance of a duplicate work book

An application for a duplicate is submitted on behalf of the employee to the employer or directly to the organization.

The application first of all indicates the reason for which the employment was lost, and then states the request.

The immediate date of writing the application and the employee’s signature are indicated. You can type on the computer or write by hand in clear handwriting.

The application is written in the name of the employer or in the name of the organization itself. But when writing an application, you cannot contact the personnel department employees. As a rule, information about the employer is written in the header, namely his last name, first name and patronymic, as well as the name of the organization and its direct contacts.

A correctly written application for the issuance of a new work book contains contact information, the reason for the loss, a signature and a request for a duplicate. If the organization has a special form for this, use it.

The application must be written as competently as possible. It is practically unacceptable to leave errors in the application. It is also undesirable to have strikethroughs in the application.

The application, like any other document, can be written by hand or printed on a computer, but the seal and signature must be affixed individually to each application by the employer himself.

Recovering records

When preparing a duplicate, the HR employee will use information that must be confirmed in the form of documents.

The list of all documents required for this is established in the regulations:

Government of the Russian Federation No. 225 16.4.2003
Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation No. 69 10.10.2003

The duplicate must be filled out in accordance with the same rules as the original document.
The employee does not always have certified copies or extracts of orders, which include various types of awards and promotions. For this reason, it was established which of the entries in the duplicate must be present. Records include total length of service and incentive information.

The total or continuous length of service is indicated for the entire duration of the employee’s work, exactly to the number of days. To confirm the acquisition of this experience, it is necessary to collect supporting documents from previous places of work. The collected materials as evidence of experience are transferred to the person who is responsible for the restoration.

Materials confirming work experience must indicate: the date of entry into work, the name of the organization and the position held. Provides information about transfers . There must be a date and reason why the employee quit.

What records should be in a duplicate work report?

How are records restored if the work record is lost?

The duplicate contains information about the employee’s total and/or continuous work experience before joining this employer, confirmed by relevant documents, as well as information about work and awards that were entered into the work book at the last place of work.

In this case, the length of service is recorded in total, that is, the total number of years, months, days of work is indicated without specifying the employer, periods of work and positions of the employee.

If the documents on the basis of which entries were made in the work book do not contain complete information about work in the past, then only the information available in these documents is entered into the duplicate. Next, in the usual manner, records of work with the employer are made, who draws up a duplicate.

Restoring a work record through court

To restore the work record book, you can go to court. This is the longest recovery process, but the most reliable. In such a situation, judicial workers themselves send requests to past employers to provide all necessary documents.

In court, witness statements may serve as evidence of your work activity.

There is no need to panic if you have lost your documents or the restoration of your work record has been delayed; going to court is guaranteed to help in this situation.

The document was lost by the employer

What to do if the work book is lost by the employer?

It happens that for some reason an employer may lose the work record of its employee.

In such a situation, the employee must act depending on the current situation:

If you were fired and the work book was not issued, then you can go to court and ask to recover the average earnings for each day of delay in the work book, which is provided for by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
If you want to restore records indicating your work experience, then in this case you need to write to the employer an application for a duplicate work record book.”

The application must be addressed to the employer at your last place of work, and your request must be responded to within 15 days from the date of submission of the application. You can also ask your employer in writing to create a new work record book for you.

To restore the work book, the employee must submit documents confirming periods of work in previous organizations. If the employee does not have such documents, the organization is obliged to assist him in obtaining them, for example, by sending requests to previous employers.

If supporting documents have not been preserved, work experience, including that established on the basis of witness testimony, can be confirmed in court.

Step-by-step instructions: procedure and rules for filling out duplicate work books

The employer must take the following actions in order to provide the employee with a duplicate of the work book as soon as possible.

The employer must collect information received from the pension fund about where the employee worked before, as well as information received after sending out appeals to other employers of the employee.
Next, the employer must purchase a work book form.
The employer writes that the document being filled out is nothing more than a duplicate.
Next, the necessary information about places of work is entered into the duplicate forms, and the title page is filled out.
The last step is to provide the work book to the employee and he becomes familiar with the contents of the duplicate. If he finds no errors, then we can assume that the employer has coped with his task.

What a duplicate work book should look like - exactly the same as the original:

Statements

The application is submitted by an employee who seeks to obtain a work book. Such an application is submitted to the employer or his deputy. After reading the text of the application, the employer decides whether to accept it or not. In case of failure to take or take certain actions upon the application, the employee may go to court.

The employee's application must be properly completed . If you think that the application has been completed incorrectly, but want to accept it, show the employee a sample of the completion and after it is corrected, begin to act as part of restoring the work book.

We remind you that the application for a duplicate is an official document, which means it requires appropriate filling. For example, an application is filled out with a blue or black pen, and printing on a computer also takes place. Also, do not forget that the application must be written neatly and in legible handwriting.

In addition, the Application must answer the question of why the employer should be involved in issuing a duplicate - we are writing that it was the fault of the employer or an employee of the HR department that the work book was actually lost.

It often happens that it is not the employee who is to blame for the fact that the work record has disappeared, but other factors. Fire and natural disasters, as well as military operations, can contribute to the fact that labor cannot be found.

The theft of documentation also contributes to this in this way, even if the employer is not to blame for the fact that the work book was lost, since it was kept on his property, it is he who is responsible for its restoration.

Application for issuance of a duplicate work book

Deadlines

The period for restoring the work book is one month, but in fact it is believed that the sooner the work book itself is restored, the better, because then the employee will not be able to sue the employer for delay.

Of course, it is possible to restore the work book in a week , but even then the fine will not be as incredibly large as the fine for a whole month of delay.

How to correctly fill out a duplicate work permit?

The duplicate work book also has a title page. It includes the employee’s last name, first name, middle name, year of birth, as well as specialty and education. For example: Sergey Petrovich Ivanov, born June 4, 1987, programmer, system administrator in a company.

Below is the signature of the manager and his seal, as well as the signature of the employer. On the other side of the spread the date of issue of the duplicate and the word duplicate itself are indicated.

The duplicate forms indicate all the information related to the employee’s labor activity in different periods according to the information that was recovered. First, the serial number of the entry is written, everything is done in Arabic numerals and certainly in order.

Then a note is made about the date the entry was made. A record is also made with information about the job, for example, accepted or fired. The employment record may also indicate the fact of advanced training and receipt of awards.

Next, put the serial number of the document on the basis of which such a statement was made in the labor contract and the signature and seal of the organization. Of course, it will not be possible to restore the seal (read about the seal in the work book here), as well as the signatures, but, in general, filling out a duplicate is not much different from the work book.

Entries in the work book should look something like this: “1. 11/15/2015 Stroygrant LLC Accepted to the position of secretary Order No. 1 dated 11/15/2015.” Only after this the stamp and date are placed.

Also, when filling out a duplicate, be sure to remember that if some entries are missing, you need to leave space for them.

For example, if there is a significant time gap between two hires, and one of the organizations has not sent you confirmation of the employee’s work, then leave a couple of free lines. This is done so that you can fill in the missing information if it suddenly appears.

Duplicate work book - sample filling:

The need for a work record

According to the labor legislation of the Russian Federation, the main functions of the work book are to reflect the following information:

the citizen’s actual work experience (which is necessary for the subsequent calculation of the amount of his pension);
information about the citizen’s qualification level , as well as information about his labor awards or commendations, or disciplinary and other sanctions;
reasons for a citizen’s dismissal from his previous places of work.

The work record book serves the interests of both the employee (reflection of work experience and professional achievements) and the employer (the ability to determine the qualification level, as well as other professional qualities of the applicant for a vacant position). Thus, its loss is fraught with a number of inconveniences and various undesirable consequences for the employee.