Is it worth agreeing to constant overtime? How should overtime work be paid and why is it so difficult to refuse in practice?

Author of the article: Roman Gavrilov Last modified: January 2021 5688

Overworking of working hours is possible regardless of the type of schedule. Accounting for the time an employee spends at work is carried out in accordance with Chapter 15 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. The total length of the working week with a standard five-day schedule cannot be more than 40 hours per week (Article 91 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation) and 120 hours per month. Due to production tasks, employees can work outside of their shift and remain at the enterprise to perform additional business tasks. Overtime is possible if the employee does not show up for a shift due to illness, additional time off, unplanned leave at his own expense, or terminates the employment contract at his own request or on the initiative of the employer.

Article 91 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation - The concept of working time. Normal working hours

Working time is the time during which an employee, in accordance with internal labor regulations and the terms of the employment contract, must perform labor duties, as well as other periods of time that, in accordance with this Code, other federal laws and other regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation, relate to working hours.
Normal working hours cannot exceed 40 hours per week. The procedure for calculating the norm of working time for certain calendar periods (month, quarter, year), depending on the established duration of working time per week, is determined by the federal executive body exercising the functions of developing state policy and legal regulation in the field of labor.

What is recycling?

First, let’s look at what does not belong to the concept of “recycling” to avoid confusion. According to Article 97 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, there are two types of labor organization: irregular working hours and overtime work. If an employee carries out his activities according to the first scheme, the concept of processing will not apply to him. This rule is also set out in a letter from Rostrud dated June 7, 2008. That is, if an employee with irregular working hours is late in the evening, he is not entitled to any additional payments for this. Compensation for overtime is provided by additional vacation days.

Another case when work beyond the schedule is not paid additionally: the employee decided, on his own initiative, to stay in the office in order to complete tasks that were not completed on time. This is relevant if a worker is given a task and adequate deadlines to complete it, but he does not have time. The lack of compensation in this case is regulated by a letter from Rostrud dated March 18, 2008.

ATTENTION! The above rule does not give the employer the right to artificially create conditions in which the employee does not have time to solve the problem. For example, if a manager gives a task that requires 5 hours to complete, an hour before the end of the shift, this will be considered an abuse of the law.

All other work in excess of the established standards, according to Article 99 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, relates to processing and is compensated. Overtime hours must be taken into account.

The legislative framework

The concept of overtime work is closely related to working time standards. According to Part 2 of Article 91 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the length of the work week should not exceed 40 hours. For some specialists (according to Articles 92, 173, 174, 333 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation), a shortened working week is relevant. Every week, the employee must be provided with uninterrupted rest of a minimum duration of 42 hours (Article 110 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

Anything that goes beyond the specified standards is recycled. Article 99 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation sets out the conditions for engaging in overtime work:

• There is an emergency or a threat to property in the company (other reasons for engaging in overtime work are also allowed).
• The employee agreed to overtime (this is a mandatory condition for disabled people and young mothers).

Even overtime has its limits. In particular, the total duration of processing should not exceed 120 hours per year and 4 hours over a continuous two days. The employee’s work must be compensated at one and a half or double rates. The specifics of payments are regulated by Article 152 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

ATTENTION! For some types of work (for example, on shifts), it is impossible to ensure a standard working day. In this case, the actual number of working hours is checked against quarterly or monthly standards (according to Article 104 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). In this case, the employer needs to issue a local act indicating the working time schedule, and also include the corresponding clause in employment contracts with employees. Overtime will be labor in excess of the standards established by the internal regulations of the enterprise.

The reason for overtime is the lack of established processes

And what professions work overtime the most and most often? Olga Museychuk , leading consultant of the recruitment agency Penny Lane Personnel : “In Russian banks (the accounting department, by the way, is delayed not only in banks, but also in any other company during reporting periods), processing concerns include accounting, taxation, and back office. Employees have to stay late at work, for example, before submitting quarterly or annual reports due to the large volume of work. Everyone involved in marketing communications knows that the working day is not always standardized for absolutely objective reasons. It’s difficult to end the corporate New Year celebration at 19-00, right?” Evgenia Biryukova: “Accountants can be classified as representatives of professions that are forced to regularly stay late at work. This need is associated with quarterly and annual reporting. But there is still no clear opinion which professions are the most common for delays at work. Rather, we can say where there are fewer of them. They are least common in production, since there is a clear shift work schedule. If an employee does not have time to turn in his shift, he will not have time for delivery. There are also fewer such overtime jobs in companies where there are trade unions. Trade unions are watching this very closely and are trying to prevent such moments.”

The reason for overtime in most cases is very banal - the lack of established processes in the company. Of course, there are real emergency situations when work falls unexpectedly, but this still happens infrequently. Much more often, the need to work overtime arises due to the fact that the company does not provide documents and data on time, there is no clear distribution of responsibilities between employees or departments, there is no strict order of tasks, and the principle “drop everything, do it urgently” prevails. When a manager cannot correctly assign a task to an employee, or does not delegate authority correctly. There are a certain number of workaholic bosses for whom working 15 hours a day is the norm, so they force their subordinates to work in the same mode. Lack of time management and inability to distribute tasks is common not only to managers, but also to most employees, and as a result, the problem grows like a snowball.

Registration procedure

When processing processing, you can use the following algorithm:

1. Obtaining consent in writing . It is advisable to obtain it before issuing an order on overtime work, since the worker may well refuse the manager. In this case, if the order has already been drawn up, you will have to edit it. How to obtain consent? To do this, you can write a notice that sets out the duration of the overtime work, as well as the start date. You can also prescribe forms of compensation for overtime to choose from - money or additional vacation days.
2. Making an order . Its form is not established by law, and therefore the document is drawn up in free form. The document indicates the reason for overtime, the full name of the employees, and the start and end time of overtime service. It is advisable to refer to notices in which the consent of employees is given.
3. Familiarization by the employee with the order . Each person involved in processing puts his signature.
4. Entering data into the accounting sheet . In this case, according to Goskomstat Resolution No. 1, forms No. T-12 or T-13, codes “C” and “04” are used. It is imperative to record the exact number of hours that the employee worked overtime.

IMPORTANT! The information indicated in the time sheet must be similar to the information set out in the order on overtime service.

Opinion of modern law on recycling

Modern provisions of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation contain some information about such a concept as “recycling”. In fact, it means the time an employee performs his direct duties, which goes beyond the schedule established by the enterprise. The reasons for the need for rework can be a variety of circumstances, including, for example, the approaching deadlines for the mandatory delivery of the project, a sharp increase in the amount of work, etc. Often the actual reasons for the presence of constant overtime is a certain fault of the employer, who was unable to competently organize the work process.

Legislative standards establish that in most cases, the employer’s responsibilities will include prior obtaining official consent from employees for overtime. Such demands are quite fair, because in fact, employees must seriously deviate from the existing schedule, violate their own plans, etc. That is why the employer is obliged to obtain mandatory consent from the employee even before engaging him in overtime work. Moreover, this consent of the subordinate must be recorded in writing. Otherwise, upon receiving an oral response, the employer will not have any evidence that the employee’s rights have not been violated.

As for exceptions in which obtaining official consent for processing from an employee is not required, these include the following:

1. The emergence of an urgent need to eliminate the consequences of a previous accident, as well as various disasters or environmental disasters.
2. Restoring systems of primary importance for the normal life of the country's population. These include, for example, housing and communal services systems, heating networks, water supply, etc.
3. Carrying out emergency measures that can really help prevent serious disasters or industrial accidents.

In all of the above situations, the employer will indeed have the legal right to involve members of his team in overtime. To do this, he will only need to create an official order, without first obtaining written consent from his subordinates.

How is overtime compensated?

According to Article 152 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, overtime service is compensated in two ways:

• In cash.
• Additional days of rest.

Payment of money is the “default” form. Additional days of rest are assigned only if the worker wishes. The amount of compensation is determined depending on the duration of processing:

• The first 2 hours are at one and a half rate.
• Subsequent hours are at double rate.

The duration of overtime work is calculated for each day.

ATTENTION! The law does not specify the time frame during which an employee can choose one of the forms of payment. Therefore, he can do this even after the money is issued. To avoid confusion, it is advisable to discuss this issue in advance.

How are additional days of rest processed?

How to register rest days established as compensation for overtime? It makes sense to fit these days into your work schedule. If there is no schedule, an order is issued with the employee’s full name and the reason for providing the rest. The employee must be familiarized with the document against signature. In the accounting sheet, rest days are marked with the code “NV” or “28”.

IMPORTANT! During the period of additional rest, salary will not be maintained.

Are the company's processing benefits?

In the long term, no is more likely than yes. People are not robots and cannot constantly work under overload conditions - labor productivity drops, people become exhausted and quit. In addition, during rework, the number of errors increases. American scientists have found that the percentage of errors by the end of an eight-hour working day increases by an average of 10%, but by the end of a ten-hour working day it increases by 28%.

In the case of processing, there is one subtle point. Employees are not always innocent victims of companies. Sometimes it happens the other way around. Managers themselves consciously increase their workload and overtime - for the sake of their career, for the sake of the image of a responsible and valuable employee. The employer does not require this, either explicitly or implicitly. Also, sometimes they work overtime for the sake of the boss’s praise, in order to show that they are ready to endure any hardships for the boss. This is a kind of sycophancy. Moreover, it is worth noting that in these cases, overtime work is not always like this; it happens that this is a pure pretense, and in fact, the employee has no reason to stay late or go out on weekends; often the fact of workload is emphasized in personal conversations, as if between other things... This can be checked quite easily - you just need to look at the volume of tasks performed by the employee, then the fake overtime will become obvious. But in reality, only a small part of bosses conduct such audits.

When is refusal to recycle allowed?

As a rule, overtime work is voluntary. If an employee refuses it, the manager does not have the right to apply sanctions to him. However, there are exceptions. Under certain circumstances, an employee is required to come to work:

• There is an emergency in the company, or if processing is needed to prevent a disaster.
• Restoration of life support systems for the population (gas, water, etc.).
• Execution of work related to the introduction of martial law.
• Work related to preventing or eliminating the consequences of situations that pose a threat to the lives of the population.

Legislators respect the personal will of the worker, but it should not endanger the lives of other people.

Stress and workload as a test of motivation

However, it should be noted that some managers are very fond of rush jobs and the processing closely associated with them. Because only in such extreme conditions, in their opinion, can one understand what employees are worth: how professional, loyal they are, why they ultimately come to the office every morning - to work or just to wipe their pants on a chair in front of the monitor. In an informal conversation, one of the middle managers from a fairly large Russian company honestly and frankly admitted that he periodically arranges urgent projects for his subordinates. As a test of motivation. Yes, perhaps it is not entirely ethical and legal, but it is fast and reliable, and ethics in business is generally the last thing, the main thing is the result. And stress and workload are one of the best ways to get to know a person, to see how he makes decisions, what mistakes he makes and how he is responsible for them, how he works in a team, a rare opportunity to evaluate personal and human qualities. During the routine course of business, all employees, as a rule, are pleasantly indifferent, but under stress, everyone shows their true colors.

Who should not be involved in recycling?

Articles 97, 99 and 101 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation give an idea of ​​the restrictions regarding involvement in processing. The following categories of workers cannot be involved in SR:

• Pregnant women.
• Minors.
• Persons combining work and study.

Some employees need to be informed, against signature, of their right to refuse management’s demands:

• Disabled people.
• Mothers of children under 3 years old.
• Single mothers and fathers.
• Guardians of minors.

The involvement of these employees in processing must necessarily be accompanied by obtaining written consent from them.

Rules for accounting for processing

Each hour worked by an employee in excess of the established norm is subject to mandatory accounting by the employer. The exact procedure for this accounting will depend on the main indicator - the rules for recording working hours at a given enterprise. For example, if we are talking about a standard week of 40 working hours, most often the manager chooses the daily accounting method. The standard working hours per week will be equal to 8. Consequently, each extra hour of service of the employee will be considered his official overtime.

Recording of extra hours of performance of professional duties by an employee, as a rule, is carried out by entering the relevant information into the main personnel document - a time sheet. In most cases, such responsibilities are assigned to HR specialists. Subsequently, the time sheet is submitted to the accounting department. There, based on the information received, the authorized specialist carries out all the necessary calculations in order to establish the exact amount of the bonus to the employee’s basic salary.

Calculation and payment of overtime under various schedules

Many HR employees use such a useful document as a production calendar in their work. It is compiled for one working year. It already calculates in advance the norms for the exact number of working hours under different schedules.

Based on the information presented in the production calendar, the personnel employee will need to compare it with the information that was recorded in the time sheet. This method allows you to quickly determine the exact number of processing hours. This, in turn, will allow the employer to correctly calculate the amount of bonus that the employee can claim.

As a rule, the established cash bonus is added to the employee’s basic salary and given to him along with the basic amount. It should be noted that delaying such payment will grossly violate the rights and legitimate interests of the subordinate. In such a situation, he will be able to contact the authorized authority in order to obtain the necessary legal protection.