How an employee can challenge an illegal bonus deduction by an employer

[subornaakter24]

If an employee considers the measures applied to him to be illegal, then within three months after he was informed of the order, he can go to court or complain to the state labor inspectorate.

In fact, if there is no desire to participate in the trial, a claim can be filed with the labor inspectorate, which will initiate an inspection of the enterprise and establish the legality or illegality of the actions taken against the employee. The employer will be fined if he acted illegally, and the employee will be compensated (prescribed by the same inspection).

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When going to court, evidence is required that the employee’s bonus was deprived of its right to work.

These may be documents (their copies), according to which the enterprise calculates additional payments:

individual employment contract;

regulations on the accrual of bonuses;

regulations on the calculation of wages;

collective agreement;

act (memorandum) on deprivation of material compensation;

order on the accrual and cancellation of the bonus (or part of it);

an order to apply a disciplinary penalty;

explanatory note from an employee.

The employee can obtain all necessary copies of work-related documents from the employer (by writing an application). They are required to provide them within three working days.

During the investigation, it is essential to determine whether the employee committed the violation intentionally or was a victim of circumstances (either version must be proven). The employee may, for example, present a doctor's certificate or other documents.

The employer also justifies his actions, provides documented grounds for depriving the subordinate of the bonus. The reasons here may include disciplinary sanctions that have taken place, actions that contradict the organization's charter, etc. An important point: depriving the employee of the bonus should not act as a disciplinary sanction, this is contrary to the law.

In the event that the employer's actions are proven to be illegal, Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation comes into force, according to which a warning is issued as punishment. The court may also decide to impose a fine.

How an employee can challenge an illegal bonus deduction by an employer

Source: Gannvector / shutterstock.com

The following fines are envisaged for 2020:

for enterprises - from 30 to 50 thousand rubles;

for private entrepreneurs and employees guilty of violations - from 1,000 to 5,000 rubles.

These are the amounts applied as a penalty for one violation, but if it is repeated, the fines will be higher:

for enterprises - from 50 to 70 thousand rubles;

for private entrepreneurs and employees guilty of violations - from 10 to 20 thousand rubles.

Moreover, an employee may be disqualified (for a period of 1 to 3 years) if repeated violations are detected.

Circumstances vary, and the court may find either party guilty.

The situation with deprivation of an employee's bonus will look clearer if we give a specific example. A certain Petrov N. P. works as an engineer at the company OOO Energosbyt. In May 2018, all employees of his department received the bonus they were entitled to, and Petrov was only paid his salary in its pure form. The engineer filed a claim in court, in which he asked to recognize the actions of his employer as unlawful, since he believed that he also deserved a bonus. The court considered it necessary to refuse the applicant, since the following circumstances were revealed during the proceedings: the company has internal regulations that clearly spell out the conditions for calculating and issuing additional payments (bonuses). The conditions were as follows: