The employment center offered me a job. Is it possible to refuse?

As of July 2021, the unemployment rate in Russia was 6.3%. This is 4.7 million people who are officially registered as unemployed. According to Rosstat, since the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic, the number of unemployed in the country has increased by 1.25 million people or 36%. Employment centers are required to offer jobs to citizens if there is a suitable vacancy for their profile. But not everyone is happy about such offers - sometimes the wages are not satisfactory, sometimes the reason is the working conditions. Refusal to work at an employment center for a number of reasons is acceptable, but two refusals already promise serious problems. Which? We tell you in this article.

Unemployment is rising and vacancies are idle - how is that possible?

The country's economy suffered a serious blow and not everyone was able to stay afloat, and therefore employers are increasingly less able to afford to hire new people, providing them with decent wages. Predictably, competition for good jobs has increased greatly. In employment centers, alas, there are even fewer such vacancies and it is not surprising that people prefer to receive benefits and look further, not agreeing to the working conditions offered to them.

The reasons most often lie on the surface - low pay, hard work or an extremely inconvenient geographical location of the potential place of work. Of course, there are also citizens who do not intend to look for anything or even work in secret unofficially. However, what should those who, for objective reasons, want to refuse a vacancy do?

Report on disabled people to the employment center

The obligation to provide a report on disabled workers is imposed by law only on large companies with more than 100 employees. Each entity sets a quota for hiring people with disabilities - from 2 to 4% of the average number of employees. For employers whose staff varies from 35 to 100 people, the quota cannot exceed 3% (Article 21 of the Federal Law of November 24, 1995 N 181-FZ “On the social protection of disabled people in the Russian Federation”).

Is it possible to refuse work?

You can, but you can only refuse a vacancy or even an interview for subjective reasons once. Remember that this refusal will be recorded in your personal file and the second refusal without a good reason will be the last - after it, the employment service will simply remove you from the register and, naturally, deprive you of unemployment benefits. It is risky to be left without government support when you have no income and even no chance of borrowing money by taking out a loan without refusal.

But if there is a really good reason, this will not affect your status. These reasons include:

1. Pay is too low. If it is below the subsistence level, you have the right to refuse without consequences, especially since in this case there is a violation on the part of the potential employer. After all, if he had submitted an application with such a low salary initially, the employment service employee would not have offered such a vacancy to you, since he does not have the right to do so.
2. Inconvenient geographical location, for example, if you have to travel too long to get to work and/or spend too much on travel.
3. Lack of proper support. Many professions are considered dangerous or require compliance with a number of safety rules. As a rule, in such cases, the law obliges employers to provide employees with protective clothing, equipment, protective equipment, or simply work uniforms. However, not all employers comply with these rules and often try to shift the responsibility onto the shoulders of employees. In this case, you can safely refuse and not worry about deregistration.
4. Inconsistency of the employee’s qualification level with the requirements of the vacancy. If you thought that employers often refuse on this pretext, then no - it is not uncommon when an employer is ready to take on an insufficiently qualified employee and train him. As a rule, there is no talk of advanced training, and all training concerns only a limited number of duties that the employee will perform directly for this employer. This is also a valid reason for refusing an offered position, because you are not obligated to take responsibility for something you are incompetent to do.
5. If, on the contrary, you have higher qualifications, you have the right to refuse the vacancy, since no one can forbid you to look for a job that matches your qualifications.
6. Reduction or reorganization of staff in the organization of a potential employer.
7. A job offer that may initially be considered unsuitable for you in all respects.

What kind of work is offered at the labor exchange?

Attention! Article 4 of Law No. 1032-1 contains a list of criteria for determining suitable work. First of all, suitable work includes temporary work if it is suitable from the point of view of professional suitability. That is, the level of education, qualifications and experience are taken into account.

In addition, the level of earnings at your last place of employment matters. A job will not be considered suitable if the salary offered is lower than that paid at the previous job (a certificate of average earnings for 3 months must be submitted when registering with the stock exchange).

However, there is a nuance: if the average earnings in the previous place exceeded the subsistence minimum, then a position where the earnings are equal to it is considered eligible, and today the minimum is 10,286 rubles.

The third factor is the state of health and the presence of restrictions and contraindications to work. All these points must be confirmed by medical documentation.

The fourth criterion is the level of transport accessibility of the place of work. It is determined by the labor exchange itself, taking into account the level of development of the transport network in a certain territory.

A vacancy cannot be considered suitable if it is necessary to change the place of residence, but the citizen does not consent to this, as well as if the working conditions do not comply with the provisions of the legislation of the Russian Federation.

How is an interview conducted and how to refuse vacancies correctly?

It is important to formalize the refusal correctly in the prescribed manner. When you receive an interview referral from your surveyor, you have 3 business days to meet with the employer to discuss your employment. If the working conditions do not suit you, you have the right to refuse by expressing your decision to the employer. Be sure to specify the reason, as it will be indicated by the employer in your direction. If the refusal comes not from you, but from the employer, he will also make the appropriate notes and certify the information with a seal and signature. In this form, the form is sent back to the employment center.

Labor safety report to the employment center

In accordance with the requirements of Articles 212 and 216 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, employers are obliged to provide the executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the field of labor protection with the information necessary for them to exercise their powers. In most municipalities, these powers are vested in the Employment Center. Since each region develops its own reporting form, its structure may vary, but the content is of the same type and includes the following information:

• on the state of industrial injuries for the reporting period;
• on the state of working conditions and the organization of labor protection work;
• on the availability of labor protection services and employee training;
• on conducting a special assessment of working conditions;
• on the provision of workers with personal protective equipment;
• on the availability of sanitary facilities and facilities;
• on public control of labor protection;
• about training and instructions.

The form may also contain information about measures to improve working conditions and safety, the activities of the trade union organization, medical examinations and other items that the regional authorities will provide. The frequency of reporting also varies from region to region and can be either annual or quarterly. The requirements for document execution are standard: the report is drawn up on the organization’s letterhead, certified by the seal, signatures of the manager and executor, and sent to an authorized official.

Can the employer himself refuse you?

Of course, he has such a right, and if you do not suit him as a potential employee, he can use it. However, most often the reasons for refusal are insufficient qualifications, suspicion that the citizen has bad habits, untidiness, etc. If the potential employer is satisfied with you, refusal is unlikely.

However, situations where applicants go to interviews only to be refused are not uncommon, and the employer is unlikely to like it if you take away his time just to get a refusal. If a vacancy is not suitable for you for subjective reasons, but you are afraid that it will not be considered respectful and you will be removed from the register for refusal, it is better to frankly tell the employer about this. For example, if in general the vacancy would suit you, but your schedule does not allow you to pick up your child from kindergarten on time or your health does not allow you to work so many hours. Be honest about this and don’t waste other people’s time, then it’s quite possible that they will meet you halfway either with a schedule or with a refusal on behalf of the employer.

Doctors and mechanics needed

Inna ran to the fund to reissue the certificate, and I went to the site that the administrator recommended. “The “Work in Russia” portal is a state information system of the Federal Service for Labor and Employment,” it is written there. Job vacancies from employers across the country are posted here. For convenience, you need to select your region and enter the vacancy you are interested in into the search bar. I decide to help my friend. But there is no work for the request “political scientist” in the Chelyabinsk region. There is nothing in the related specialties that Inna mentioned as possible: sociologist, specialist in politics, philosophy. But in the region, for example, there are about 1,700 free positions for doctors and almost 21,000 jobs for mechanics.

The employment office is usually not crowded. Photo: AiF/ Nadezhda Uvarova

Three days later, Inna received the necessary certificate. We go to the employment service again. The same administrator checks the documents and refers you to an appointment with a specialist. He says that since you came early, you can do it every day. But she explains that Inna will be recognized as unemployed if she does not find a job only after 11 days. Until this time, she must go around and call potential employers. Of course, the employment service will give directions on available vacancies, but the unemployed must also not make mistakes. “Look for it yourself, and we will help,” the administrator summed up and sent my friend to office No. 3.

We got in line behind the only customer. Inna was invited in three minutes. While she's gone, I look around the hall. The walls are covered with posters, leaflets, announcements and infographics. For everyone - either step-by-step instructions for finding a job, or vacancies from companies, or advertisements for temporary employment, or advice on how to write a resume. There is a TV under the ceiling; the screen tells about job fairs held by the employment center and meetings with representatives of large enterprises.

Inna comes out quickly. She says, like on the Internet, there are no vacancies for her. She is surprised: the job search is based on the specialty of the diploma, and not on the profession from the last place of work. That is, she, of course, can get a job as a social worker if she wants, but the employment service is trying to find her a place as a political scientist.

The hall is full of educational materials for the unemployed. Photo: AiF/ Nadezhda Uvarova

“I liked the inspector,” says my friend. - Such a friendly woman. True, she tortured me about what other vacancies I was considering. I say, yes, any, where the salary is at least 20 thousand, travel close to home and the work is skilled.”

It turns out that those who get a job for the first time, do so after a long break, or do not have an education, are offered unskilled labor. And the benefit will be 1,500 rubles, and taking into account the regional coefficient (in Chelyabinsk it is 15%) - 1,725 ​​rubles.

What are the consequences of refusing to work?

Two refusals are equal to deregistration and, accordingly, you simply will not see payments, since the procedure is as follows: they put you on the register, look for a job for you within 10 days, and only if a job is not found, you are declared unemployed. The law is categorical on this issue - a citizen who refuses to work without reason twice cannot be recognized as unemployed. You can contact the employment center again in a month.

If the refusals were justified, you are in no danger. Also, remember that sanctions can only affect you if you refuse suitable work. And according to the law, such a job is considered to be one that corresponds to your qualifications, the level of payment is not less than the subsistence minimum, and is also geographically convenient. If at least one condition is not met, your refusal cannot be considered unreasonable, and if you are given referrals for vacancies that frankly do not suit you in all respects, you may not even push for a refusal, but challenge the referral itself by filing a complaint with the manager of the employment center .

Information about personnel reduction

In accordance with paragraph 2 of Art. 25 of Law No. 1032-1, the organization must notify the Central Employment Center about staff reductions no later than two months, and in the case of mass layoffs, three months before the event. The form of the document is established in the appendices to the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 02/05/1993 No. 99, according to which the following information about each employee must be indicated in the form:

• FULL NAME.;
• education;
• profession or specialty;
• qualification;
• size and conditions of remuneration.

The criteria for mass dismissal are also established in the said Resolution. These include:

1. Liquidation of an enterprise employing 15 or more people.
2. Reduction of the number of employees:

• 50 or more people within 30 calendar days;
• 200 or more people within 60 calendar days;
• 500 or more people within 90 calendar days.

However, each region may establish additional criteria aimed at protecting workers, and such conditions may be provided for in sectoral, territorial or regional agreements.