The parties broke up the world: How we resolved a legal dispute with an unregistered employee

A client came to us with a terrible situation: the client hired an employee, but the employee did not sign the contract (the parties had no time and needed to work). He gave the employee his salary and transferred his contributions. 

When there was less work, the employee started working part-time for another employer in a neighboring building, then submitted a letter of resignation and was fired based on the order. 

When moving to a new office, the client successfully misplaced personnel documents, including a letter of resignation and an order to dismiss the employee. The careless employer decided that no employee, no problem and completely forgot about him. 

However, the employee did not forget. He was thinking for a few months that it would be nice to get money from his employer. So he printed out information about his work activity, as well as information about his dismissal from government services, and then went to the labor inspectorate first. And then he went to court to be reinstated at work and to recover wages and receive compensation for their delay. The amount of the claim exceeded 600,000 rubles. 

Due to the inspection moratorium, the labor inspectorate was able to issue a formal notice of violation of the employee's rights and explained the possibility of going to court to resolve the labor dispute. 

The client contacted us for assistance. After reviewing the documents, we concluded that it is impossible to win the case on the “weak” side even without considering judicial practice. As a result, we suggested that the client reach a settlement agreement and that we set ourselves the goal of exiting the process with as few losses as possible, including material ones. 

As a result, we took the actions listed below: 

1. We persuaded the employer to transfer the employee's wages to a bank card (we first requested the information). This step was taken to prevent the client from facing criminal charges.
2. Made all payments due upon dismissal of the employee.
3. At the first court hearing, we asked the employee if he was currently working and if he had been hired for another job. As a result, the employee's claim for reinstatement at work was not satisfied, which we made sure to mention during the trial. In addition, we drew the court's attention to the fact that the employee stopped coming to work without being coerced, so he ended the employment relationship. It was obvious that, while the salary would not be collected, the employee could still recover compensation for the forced absence by clarifying his claim.
4. We would demonstrate to the court that the employee did not attend to work and that the employment relationship with our client was terminated voluntarily. 

After relieving the employee's pressure to get more money in court, we proposed reaching a settlement agreement and paying a third of the stated claims (considering the payments that were already made, and half of the stated claims were received). 

After considering the situation and realizing that the employee would have too much to prove and did not want to spend money on a lawyer, he agreed to a settlement agreement in which the employer changes the date of dismissal and pays a portion of the stated amount, and the defendant waives the claims. 

Thus, we assisted the employer in getting out of a difficult situation with minimal losses. 

Finally, we would like to remind many employers of some labor relations precautions they should take in order to win a labor dispute with an employee in court: 

1. If you decide to hire an employee, create a written employment contract and keep it for at least a year after the employee is dismissed. (The statute of limitations for filing a claim in court for reinstatement is one month from the date of familiarization with the dismissal order, while the period for collecting wages is one year from the date of accrual.)
2. Keep personnel records (orders of admission, transfer, leave, and dismissal) for at least ten years.
3. Avoid late payment of wages (remember that failure to pay wages for more than two months may result in criminal charges).
4.  Document any violation of labor discipline, such as absence from work, in an act involving at least two people who can be questioned during the investigation.
5. Keep track of the minimum wage increase and remember to raise wages if the salary is less than the minimum wage (although the labor inspectorate may not conduct an inspection, the employee can file a claim in court for wage increases and indexation, as well as recover interest for wage delays).