Arbitrariness of the employer - how to contact the labor inspectorate?

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Published: 10/23/2018

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Each employee has not only certain job responsibilities, but also rights. If an employer violates current labor laws, the employee has the right to contact supervisory authorities to complain about the violation of his rights.

• What is a violation of labor laws
• Where to complain about violation of labor laws
• How to properly file a complaint
• How to file a complaint and the time frame for its consideration

Where is it better to complain to the employer?

As a rule, employees file complaints against the employer in 3 instances:

1. to court
2. to the prosecutor's office
3. to the labor inspectorate

You should go to court when an employee wants to get a specific material result. According to a court decision or court order, money will be collected, you can cancel the order or be reinstated at work.

The prosecutor's office, as a rule, responds to serious violations of the law when there are grounds to initiate a criminal case or a massive violation of rights occurs. In other cases, the prosecutor's office recommends going to court or writing a complaint to the labor inspectorate (they may forward your complaint there themselves).

A complaint to the labor inspectorate makes sense when there is a desire to bring the employer to administrative responsibility so that an order is issued and a fine is imposed. Another advantage of contacting the labor inspectorate is the possibility of a confidential inspection, that is, the employer will not be informed which of the employees complained about him.

Labor legislation to protect the rights of workers and employees

Labor legislation regulates all possible situations that arise in the process of working relationships between employees of an organization and its management. According to the articles of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the main principles of labor relations are:

• The right of every citizen to choose a profession at his own discretion and desire.
• Any discrimination in the field of labor relations based on social, gender, age or national characteristics is prohibited.
• It is prohibited to use forced labor, both in overt and latent (voluntary-forced) forms.
• Every person has the right to decent and timely wages. The amount of remuneration must correspond to the actual volume of work performed, but not be lower than the minimum level established by law.
• The workplace of each employee must comply with sanitary standards and safety regulations.
• All employees of the enterprise have a legal right to rest. In this regard, daily working hours are strictly standardized. Every year, employees of the organization must also be provided with paid leave.
• In order to protect their labor interests, workers at enterprises can unite on a voluntary basis into trade union associations. At the same time, employees can freely join them and leave their membership if they wish.
• In case of temporary loss of ability to work due to illness, injury, or pregnancy, each employee has the right to seek financial support from his employer.

Monitoring compliance with the above requirements of labor legislation is the responsibility of special supervisory government agencies - the labor inspectorate. Let's consider how to contact the labor inspectorate with a complaint in case of violation of the legal rights of an employee.

How to write a complaint to the labor inspectorate

There are no special requirements for filing a complaint, but the complaint must include the following information:

1. name of the state labor inspectorate;
2. Applicant's full name, home address, phone number, email;
3. name of the appeal - Complaint to the labor inspectorate ;
4. the grounds for the complaint, the name of the employer, its location;
5. date and signature of the applicant.
6. if necessary, indicate a confidential inspection.

Please keep in mind that if the written appeal does not indicate the name of the citizen who sent the appeal or the postal address to which the response should be sent, then no response to the appeal will be given. The labor inspectorate does not consider anonymous complaints.

In what cases is it required?

You must contact the labor inspectorate in the following circumstances:

1. Non-payment of bonuses, maternity benefits, salaries. If the employer delays or does not pay wages, or unreasonably deprives of bonuses or other mandatory benefits for sick leave. Avoids payments to employees who are on educational, maternity, or annual leave. These violations are considered criminal offenses.
2. The manager does not comply with working conditions.
3. Working without an employment contract. If the manager refuses to formalize the employee.
4. They pay a black or gray salary. Many employers hide from taxes in an effort to save money.
5. For a reprimand. The employer specifically creates a situation for the employee to violate his duties and then fires him.
6. If there is a concealment of an accident at work and coercion of workers to give deliberately false testimony.
7. Unlawful dismissal of an employee during his period of incapacity.
8. Processing. If a manager forces an employee to go to work on weekends, staying after work is against his wishes.
9. Insulting an employee. Obscene language on the part of the employer.

Filing a complaint to the labor inspectorate

You can submit a complaint in person or by registered mail with notification. In the first case, the labor inspectorate employee who accepted the complaint is required to put a number and signature on the second copy, which will remain with the applicant. If the complaint is sent by mail, the complainant will have notice of the date the complaint will be delivered to the labor inspectorate. If necessary, attach documents and materials or copies thereof to your written appeal to support your arguments.

You can also submit a complaint in the form of an electronic document. The applicant has the right to attach to such an application the necessary documents and materials in electronic form.

The employee has the right to request a confidential inspection. This means that when conducting a check, the employer will not be informed of the name of the employee, who in this case can avoid prosecution by the employer

The peculiarity of applying to the labor inspectorate is that the law does not establish time limits for applying, as is done for applying to the court. If the employee missed the deadline and there are no valid reasons for reinstating the deadline for going to court, then the only option will be to file a complaint with the labor inspectorate.

Where can this be done?

So where exactly can you apply?

An application must be submitted to the inspectorate of the area in which the violation of the employee’s rights occurred. Each region has its own labor inspectorate. There are 3 main delivery methods:

1. Personally . To do this, you need to come with an application and the necessary package of documents to the inspection and hand them over to the reception.
2. By registered mail with notification . This method is more convenient, but do not forget that a letter with original documents may be lost during the forwarding process.
3. Electronically via the Internet . For this method, you will also need to draw up an application and collect the necessary documentation package. All documents will need to be scanned and sent along with the application.

The procedure for filing and considering a complaint is discussed in detail in the following video:

Anonymous complaint to the labor inspectorate

When filing a complaint with the labor inspectorate against the actions of the employer, employees often do not want management to know about their appeal, not to put pressure on them and not to force them to resign.

Workers see one way out of this situation by filing an anonymous complaint with the labor inspectorate. However, anonymous complaints are not considered by the labor inspectorate. This is specifically stated in Article 11 of the Federal Law “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation,” which will guide the state inspector in this situation.

The way out of this situation is to file a complaint requesting a confidential inspection. The inspector’s obligation to keep confidential the personal data of the employee who applied, the data of his complaint and other information that will allow the employer to identify the identity of the complaining employee is enshrined in Article 358 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

Is it possible to revoke a document?

The situation may develop in such a way that after submitting an application to the labor inspectorate, the employee was able to resolve the problematic issue with the administration. As a result, a situation arises that he wants to withdraw a previously issued appeal.

However, the law does not contain the ability to stop processing a complaint at the request of its originator. Even if the author of the application submits a new document to the labor inspectorate with information that the conflict with the employer has been resolved, an inspection must still be carried out.

However, in this case, the Code of Administrative Offenses establishes that compensation for harm caused is a mitigating factor when establishing punishment for violating the law.

Consideration of a complaint against the employer’s actions in the inspection

A written appeal must be registered within three days from the date of receipt by the labor inspectorate.

Complaints are considered within 30 days from the date of registration of the written appeal. If necessary, the period for consideration of the complaint may be extended, but not more than by 30 days. In this case, the applicant must be notified of the extension of the time limit for consideration of the complaint.

Based on the complaint, the state labor inspectorate is obliged to conduct an inspection. During the inspection, the inspector establishes facts of violation of the employee’s labor rights specified in the complaint, or their absence. The powers of the state inspector include direct inspection and requesting copies of documents from the employer; he can arrive at the place of performance of labor duties and personally verify the existing violations. Based on the results of the inspection, a report is drawn up. If facts of violation of labor rights are confirmed, the head of the employing organization is issued an order to eliminate the identified violations. For example, this is how the issue of an application for the issuance of work-related documents can be resolved.

The applicant is given a reasoned response on the merits of the issues raised in the complaint, which indicates what facts of violations of labor rights were confirmed during the consideration of the complaint and the inspection of the employer, what measures of inspector response were taken against the employer (an order was issued, an administrative case was initiated for violation labor legislation), explains the procedure for further actions to restore violated rights or disputed interests if, in accordance with the powers of the state labor inspectorate, it was not possible to resolve the issues raised in the complaint.

The documents that will be collected during the inspection, as well as the labor inspector’s response, can be used as written evidence when filing a claim in court.

A citizen whose rights have been violated by the actions (inaction) of a labor inspector has the right to file an administrative claim in court, appealing against his actions.

What are the risks of contacting an employer?

If a violation of labor legislation is detected, the employer faces either disciplinary, administrative, or criminal liability.

In case of non-compliance with labor relations, the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation presupposes a fine, the amount of which depends on the type of offense. If the offense is repeated, the court has the right to impose punishment in the form of a ban on leadership positions for a period of 1 to 3 years.

In addition to fines, the employer may be punished by imprisonment for a period established by law, compulsory labor, or deprivation of the right to work in management positions.

Find out how the dismissal of a maternity leaver in connection with the liquidation of an enterprise is formalized. How to evaluate a car for inheritance? See here.