Many employees draw up a special liability agreement with the employer. Based on this agreement, a citizen is responsible for the integrity and optimal condition of a certain property. In addition, all employees must carefully handle the fixed assets of the company. If for any reason the employee becomes the culprit in the destruction of values, then he is obliged to cover the damage. If a citizen refuses to voluntarily pay the funds, then the head of the enterprise will have to recover material damage from the employee. This is a rather complicated and specific procedure. It is important to know when it is impossible to use the recovery, as well as how much money you can require.
Claims for damages
Material damage can only be claimed under certain conditions. For this, it takes into account what guilty acts were committed by a citizen. In addition, its inaction can cause harm. Basic information about the rules of bringing to liability is prescribed in Art. 232 and Art. 238 TC. In Art. 233 TC provides elements of responsibility, which include the following points:
- both parties to the disagreement must have a properly formed labor relationship at the moment when the company is being hurt by a hired specialist;
- actions performed by an employee violate the requirements of the law, for example, a person intentionally ruined a value or stole a tangible item;
- you can even harm the absence of any actions on the part of the employee;
- evidence is required that the particular employee of the company is the culprit of the situation, and moreover, his actions may be intentional or reckless;
- it is established as a result of an investigation by company officials that there is a causal relationship between the damage caused and the actions of the hired specialist;
- the actions of a citizen should lead to damage to material assets belonging to the organization, since if there are no serious consequences, the employer can use a reprimand or a comment.
Therefore, the above factors must be taken into account by the employer before recovering material damage from the employee. This requires certain sequential actions.
Nuances of determining damage
If, indeed, actions or omissions on the part of the employee led to the fact that the company suffered material damage, then the employee must compensate him. According to the legislation, it is allowed to recover only direct damage, therefore a sum of money equal to the value of damaged or lost property is transferred to the company.
If an item is damaged for which the company is responsible to counterparties or customers, then the value is still presented to the employee. For example, a car owned by a customer is broken, not a car repair company. In this case, the guilty employee pays the amount necessary to repair the car.
If material damage was recovered from the perpetrator, then it will not be possible to additionally claim lost profits. An exception is the payment of this amount by the head of the enterprise.
Types of Responsibility
Before recovering material damage from an employee of the enterprise, the employer must justify the amount that may be claimed from the citizen. For this, the book value of the destroyed property indicated in the company's accounting is taken into account. According to Art. 246 TC additionally used for wear.
During the calculation, you can take into account the market value of a particular property. The result should be confirmed by official documents.
Varieties of Compensation
The amount received from the culprit must meet modern needs. You can recover material damage in two ways:
- Full. According to Art. 242 TC, the culprit must pay the full amount for the damage. Full responsibility is provided for representatives of only certain professions, which include accountants or cashiers. In addition, it is used if the employee who caused the damage received certain values on the basis of a special order or contract. Full liability is provided for professionals whose actions are recognized as an administrative offense or a crime. Severe punishment is imposed on employees who were intoxicated during the infliction of material harm.
- Limited liability applies to other employees of the enterprise. In this case, the full value of the destroyed or lost property is not covered. Only the amount equal to the average citizen's earnings per month of work is recovered.
To recover material damage from an employee is the right of the employer, and not an obligation. Therefore, any head of the company independently decides on the need to hold the employee accountable.
When is it impossible to recover?
There are some situations where it will not be possible to recover material damage from an employee. This is not possible in the following cases:
- the integrity of the property of the company was violated as a result of any force majeure circumstances that a person could not influence, for example, damage is caused by an earthquake or fire;
- the cause of the destruction of an item is a normal economic risk, for example, an employee performed his standard labor duties on the basis of existing experience and qualifications, and also tried to prevent the negative consequences of any actions, but the damage was still caused;
- the cause of damage is necessary defense.
All such situations are listed in Art. 239 TC. In these cases, the employee damages the company where he is officially employed, but at the same time pursues any significant or even noble goals. During damage to property, a citizen can protect other people or the entire company as a whole. Often, employees in court prove that the employer, who transferred any values to the citizen for storage, did not create the necessary conditions for this.
Procedure
Each head of the enterprise must understand how to recover material damage from the offender. A citizen can transfer funds voluntarily or through a court. But in any case, the following sequential actions should be performed initially:
- Initially, the head of the employee draws up a memo to the director of the enterprise;
- this note should contain information about exactly what illegal actions were committed by the employee, as well as what negative consequences they led;
- on the basis of such a document, the head of the company issues an order to conduct an internal investigation;
- a commission is formed, which includes specialists who understand the features of the enterprise;
- a direct check is carried out, which may consist of an inventory, a survey of employees of the enterprise, as well as the collection of other evidence that a specific citizen is the culprit in a particular situation;
- if the damage is caused by the commission of a crime, then law enforcement officials shall be involved in the investigation;
- the results of such verification should be formally issued;
- as soon as all circumstances are revealed, and the fault of a particular citizen is established, a written explanation is requested from him;
- if the employee refuses to draw up an explanatory note, the relevant act is formed by the employer;
- at the end of the audit, an order is issued by the director, and this document includes information about the culprit, the amount of damage caused and all the circumstances in which certain illegal actions were committed;
- A correctly formed order is sent to the accounting department, whose specialists withhold the necessary amount of funds from the perpetrator’s salary.
All orders must be introduced to the guilty employee. If material damage is collected from the driver, then his salary is significantly reduced, since some of the money goes to cover the damage.
Collection procedure
To recover material damage from an employee is the right of every employer, therefore, under different circumstances, the director may refuse such actions. If it is required to receive the required amount of funds from the employee, then it is important to determine the recovery procedure. For this, the following parameters are taken into account:
- if an employee is brought to full responsibility, then he must pay from the personal savings the required amount equal to the value of the destroyed or damaged property;
- if limited liability is used, then only an amount equal to the average salary of a citizen is recovered, for which purpose it is necessary to issue an order to the head containing information about such a recovery;
- if the specialist refuses to pay the full cost of the property at his own expense, the employer will have to go to court;
- if it is established that the employee committed a crime or an administrative offense, the director of the company may seek the help of law enforcement agencies, therefore, compensation for harm is required as part of a criminal or administrative process.
How to recover material damage from the driver to the employer? To do this, you will initially have to conduct an investigation, as well as request an explanatory note from the culprit. Only after that the necessary amount is deducted from the citizen’s salary. The amount of the penalty depends on the value of the damaged property and the circumstances of the case.
Refund Options
Any reimbursement must be agreed with the employee, after which a special schedule is drawn up. You can stretch payments even for a year so that the employee does not have financial difficulties. If the leaders of the company fully recovered the material damage in favor of the victim from their employee, then the citizen will receive the same amount of his salary.
There are several options for reimbursement:
- voluntary, when an employee agrees with the need to withhold a certain amount of money from his salary;
- extrajudicial recovery consists in the fact that the employer makes a claim to the employee, on the basis of which the citizen must pay off the debt due to his personal savings;
- judicial recovery is applied if the perpetrator does not want to independently cover the damage.
The owner of the company at any time can reduce the size of the penalty. This usually happens if the employee agrees to voluntarily pay the funds, so the employer wants to reduce his financial burden.
The nuances of going to court
If the employee refuses to voluntarily repay the damage caused to the company, then under Art. 392 TC, the employer may apply to the court for the enforcement of money. The rules of this process include:
- the limitation period is one year;
- it is important to prepare evidence that a truly specific company employee is responsible for violating the integrity of the property;
- competent calculations of the size of such a penalty are given;
- the court may, for various reasons, reduce the amount of compensation.
The employer must know how to correctly write a statement of claim. It is quite easy to recover material damage from an employee through a court. After the court decides, a writ of execution is sent to the bailiffs. Specialists initiate enforcement proceedings, so they can use different measures of influence on the employee of the enterprise.
If the bailiffs recovered material damage in an accident or in other situations, then the employee’s obligations to the company are considered fulfilled. Money bailiffs are transferred to the head of the company.
What to do if an employee quits?
Situations are frequent when employees who inflict any material damage on the company immediately leave the company. In this case, they try to evade responsibility, because they do not want to transfer the set amount of funds to the employer.
The obligation to cover the damage ceases only after the transfer of the required amount of money. After the dismissal of the specialist, the employer will not be able to issue an order to withhold funds from the salary, therefore, under such conditions, disagreements are resolved only through the court.
Conclusion
If the employee causes any material damage to the company, then he must cover it at his own expense. Full or partial liability may apply to him. If a citizen refuses to voluntarily deposit a sum of money, then it is collected by a forced method, for which the head of the company files a lawsuit.
After the trial, bailiffs begin to collect money. In this case, property belonging to the debtor may even be confiscated and sold. Therefore, employees of enterprises that have caused material damage to the company must responsibly approach their obligations to the employer.