Legal basis
The Labor Code regulates such an event as a reduction in the number or staff of employees in articles relating to dismissal issues and providing for compensation and guarantees to employees.
The Labor Code regulates the reduction of the number or staff of employees in sufficient detail and clearly, but when applying the norms of the code, questions always arise. Judicial practice is of great importance; the Supreme Court often issues clarifications on the procedure for applying articles of the law, for example, Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court No. 2 of March 17, 2004, which pays a lot of attention to this issue, is still relevant on this issue. The reduction in the number of employees occurs at the initiative of the employer; this basis for termination of the employment contract is formulated in Art. 81 Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Art. 178-180 are entirely devoted to guarantees and compensation for a person dismissed on such grounds.
Mass layoffs
An employer has certain obligations when carrying out a massive reduction in the number or staff of an organization's employees. Mass scale criteria are established in sectoral and territorial agreements. As a rule, mass is established by the number of people fired during a certain period of time. If there are no sectoral and territorial agreements, it is necessary to use the criteria established in the Regulations on the organization of work to promote employment in conditions of mass layoffs. This document was approved by Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Federation No. 99 of 02/05/1993, but it is valid:
- within a period of 30 calendar days - 50 people or more;
- within a period of 60 calendar days - 200 people or more;
- within a period of 90 calendar days - 500 people or more.
When the reduction is massive
Reduction, both massive and partial, is a legal tool for the employer to resolve a significant item of labor costs. The dismissal of employees may be dictated by negative conditions in the country's economy as a whole, the difficult financial condition of the organization, or a (significant) reduction in the scope of work in the organization.
The process of dismissing employees through layoffs is controlled by the state labor protection service and therefore the employer must carefully weigh all the reasons that prompted the launch of this procedure.
The reduction in the total number of employees must be justified and long-term in nature. If, for example, after 15 out of 20 people were fired, the missing 15 employees were hired within a month, government agencies will certainly have objective complaints.
Reasons
A reduction in the number or staff of workers is two different reasons for reducing the number of workers - labor units:
- if changes in the staffing table lead to a decrease in the number of units of one position, the number of employees is directly reduced;
- if entire structural units or specific positions with people are excluded, staff reduction occurs.
Of course, it is possible to reduce the number of staff and the number of positions in parallel; this is a common practice. First, management makes a decision, then implements it - dismissal occurs to reduce the number or staff of employees. Typically, the manager alone makes such a decision, and it is formalized in accordance with the nomenclature of affairs adopted at the enterprise. Or, but much less frequently, the decision is formalized in the protocol of the collegial executive body (depending on the system of management bodies and the distribution of their powers in the organization).
Short working hours are an alternative to mass layoffs
The most democratic management of organizations, wishing to wait out temporary difficulties and retain qualified personnel, has the right to organize the process of working on a shortened working day at the enterprise. This possibility is regulated by Art. 74 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and allows replacing massive staff reductions.
In coordination with the trade union (if any), the personnel service issues an order on the organization for a period of up to 6 months. Inform staff of changes in work in writing. And also, within 3 days, notify the regional employment center that employees will work:
- 4-5 hours a day, not an 8-hour day;
- 2-3 days a week, not a full 5 days;
- Another mixed schedule regime in which daily working hours are maintained.
Important! Changes in part-time/weekly hours must be communicated to employees in writing 2 months before the start of the application of the reduced work schedule.
When accepting a new employee, part-time working hours can be specified in the employment contract.
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Algorithm of actions
If an employer needs to correctly reduce the number of employees, step-by-step instructions will help you do this without missing anything important.
Step 1. Issue an order.
Step 2. Identify employees who cannot be laid off.
Step 3: Conduct a personnel audit to identify those who have advantages over others in the same positions.
Step 4. Send notices of layoffs (to employees, trade union, employment center).
Step 5. Offer vacancies to those who are planned to be fired.
Step 6. Dismiss those who did not agree to the transfer (fill out documents, pay what is due).
We will analyze in detail the procedure for reducing the number and staff of employees step by step.
How to correctly draw up this document in accordance with the Labor Code of the Russian Federation?
Despite the fact that headcount reduction and staff reduction are still different concepts (the first implies getting rid of part of the employees of the same position, the second means that the position itself has outlived its usefulness and should no longer exist), there are special differences in drawing up a notice for these two facts do not.
Compiled upon the release of the order, mentioning all applicants for reduction . It is written in two copies (one remains in the organization, the other is given to the applicant) in the first person by the head of the company on a standard A4 sheet.
In order to notify an employee of a layoff, the document must contain the following data:
- to whom it is addressed - in the upper right corner;
- full name of the organization, division - in the center of the document;
- date of;
- Address address by name and patronymic
- briefly - the essence of the problem, why the reduction
- job title of the person being dismissed;
- reference to legislation
- What does the dismissed person have the right to, what positions are offered to him as an alternative?
- signature.
Next, we will tell you everything about the sample notification of the upcoming layoff of an employee.
Sample notice of job reduction in the staffing table
What does a redundancy notice look like? Here is an example of a notice of layoff of an employee:
Podolsk branch of the Limited Liability Company "Delta-B" to HR Manager Ivanova M.P.
Notification
July 20, 2020
Dear Maria Petrovna!
In connection with the termination of the activities of the Podolsk branch of the Limited Liability Company "Delta-B", I inform you of the dismissal on September 20 (twentieth) 2020, in accordance with Article 77, paragraph "b", part 2 (staff reduction) .
Reason - decision of the Board of Directors of Delta-B LLC (minutes dated July 18, 2020)
Director: Sergeev Sergey Sergeevich (signature)
Acquainted: Maria Petrovna Ivanova (signature).
If the reduction is not due to the liquidation of the company, then the notification form about the reduction of position indicates a list of positions (Article 81 of the Labor Code) that a given citizen can occupy in terms of qualifications and health. The monthly salary must be indicated in brackets .
After this document is in the hands of the future former employee, the citizen is obliged to register with the employment center at his place of residence and look for work.
During this time - two months - he will be paid the average salary from his previous bosses.
Two months after receiving notice of dismissal due to reduction, the employment contract with this citizen will be terminated. It, of course, can be terminated earlier - but in this case an additional agreement is drawn up and a corresponding statement is written.
This happens, for example, when a person has already found a job and the management there demands that he begin fulfilling his duties immediately - but after all, two months have not yet passed and you can’t just leave.
By the way, the priority opinion in this situation will still remain with the head of the company.
Here you can notify about the reduction of an employee:
- sample notice of staff reduction;
- employee layoff notification form.
These sample notices to employees about job reduction will help you draw up the document correctly.
That's all you need to know about the notification form when laying off an employee, the sample of which is presented above.
Consequences of mistakes during abbreviation
It is also important to avoid mistakes because labor disputes are most difficult to resolve in court; their resolution often takes a long time. Dismissal due to reduction may be considered illegal for any violation of the law.
If the citizen’s demands are satisfied (and judges often side with individuals), it will be necessary to reinstate the employee at work, pay compensation for the entire period of forced absence, and also, possibly, compensation for moral damage. In addition, employers who violate the Labor Code are punished with large administrative fines.
Features of the procedure
Before embarking on a rather unpleasant redundancy procedure, the employer must go through several mandatory steps.
First of all, although this is not stipulated in labor legislation, in order to more accurately determine the composition of those being laid off, it is necessary to create a special commission .
The commission must identify those people who are not subject to layoffs. This can be determined by the amount of work experience, the absence (presence) of violations and comments during work, as well as personal merits to the enterprise.
Pregnant women, as well as those with children under three years of age, remain advantageous in the event of dismissal. The choice is determined towards single mothers and people who have children left without parents in their care.
People who are the only breadwinner in the family, people who have received work-related injuries at the enterprise, as well as disabled combat veterans can reserve the right to remain in the workplace.
- After the commission has decided on applicants for dismissal, management’s task includes the process of notifying selected employees about the upcoming dismissal. The dismissal order must be issued two months before the actual dismissal.
- The employer must bring employees up to date in writing.
This letter is drawn up in two copies, one of which remains with the manager. If it turns out that the employee is not at work at this time (vacation, sick leave), then he must be notified by mail. - In case of dismissal, the employer has the right to offer the dismissed employee to move to another existing position, if any. If this is not possible, then he can provide assistance in finding a job at other enterprises or offer to take retraining courses in other specialties.
- In any case, all applicants for dismissal must be familiar with the layoff order and sign it!
If anyone does not agree with this resolution, he has the right to appeal his candidacy. First of all, the situation should be discussed with management by providing a protocol.If an agreement is not reached, the employee can submit an application to the labor inspectorate, where after 10 days a final decision will be made.
