Today, most employers prefer to divide wages into two categories: salary and bonuses. The salary portion is compulsory for employees. In this case, of course, take into account the number of days worked or the amount of work performed.
At the same time, the decision on the payment of the bonus part remains with the head. With effective work, employees receive remuneration, and in case of violation of labor discipline or unsatisfactory performance of duties, they will be deprived (this is the absence of bonus incentives or its reduction).
Sensitive situation
Accustomed to receiving wages increased by bonus accruals, many workers who have been depressed are shocked.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that at the time of employment, the employer often voices the amount of the salary to the applicants along with the incentive, without sharing these concepts. Therefore, the accrual of a truncated patch can be perceived as illegal actions.
Unsurprisingly, employee depremization is often the subject of controversy and litigation. It should be noted that the vast majority of situations are decided in favor of the employer. This is due to the inattentive attitude of company employees to labor contracts, company charters and local administrative documents that govern the rules of labor discipline in the enterprise.
Bonuses and depremiration of employees: concepts, grounds, functions
In order to know whether depremization was carried out correctly, it is necessary to determine what the bonus is and in what cases it is charged.
The prize is the material incentive (incentive payment), which is given to the employee along with the amount of the basic salary for fulfilling the tasks and not violating the requirements for labor discipline. The conditions for the issuance or deprivation of remuneration are indicated in such documents as a collective and labor contract, a provision on depremization and local regulations.
Types of premiums:
- One time.
- Monthly
- Annual (thirteenth salary).
Thanks to the system of material incentives, the leader can significantly increase the level of motivation and effectiveness of his subordinates. In addition, bonuses also help to achieve excellent discipline in the workplace. And the depreciation of employees becomes a kind of factor of demotivation. This measure is resorted to to draw the attention of workers to those aspects of their activities or behavior that should be optimized.
Deprementing is an employer's legal tool that allows it to financially punish dishonest or careless employees of a company.
Sanctions Documentation
Like all the nuances of labor relations relating to financial resources, the accrual or deprivation of bonuses is strictly regulated by the relevant documents.
Bonuses and depreciation become an obligatory part of the labor or collective agreement. The procedure and reasons for calculating allowances, as well as cases where they may be deprived, should be explained in detail to applicants.
In practice, many enterprises consider it rational to use a table that is individually designed taking into account the specifics of the company’s activities, which shows examples of deprivation (type of misconduct or disciplinary violation and the amount of sanction).
This document must be provided to all employees who must read and sign it as a sign that they are familiar with and agree to the conditions. In addition, the table is placed on the information stand in all divisions of the company.
Regular Bonus Deprivation
Obviously, this type of punishment becomes a blow not only to the wallet for employees, but also to self-esteem. Therefore, resorting to such a measure as the depreciation of employees, the employer must comply with all the rules and regulations.
The choice of the basis for the deprivation or reduction of the premium depends on its type. If the accrual of remuneration is systematic, that is, it is issued along with the salary part, this should be indicated in the employment contract.
When awarding, they do not constitute additional securities, because the general statement contains the amount of salary and bonus.
The manager has the right to deprive the employee of this type of bonus only if he has undeniable evidence of violation of labor discipline.
Grounds for applying material sanctions
Employee depremization is applied if they:
- Walking for a long time or absent from the workplace, without giving a good reason for their behavior.
- They appear at the enterprise drunk.
- Debauchery, steal in the company or commit other criminal acts.
- Deliberately spoil the property of the company.
- They do not comply with safety regulations and labor protection standards, and this leads to damage or destruction of material assets belonging to the company.
- Divulge trade secrets or pass on classified information to third parties.
- They transmit incorrect information to the head, and this entails certain material losses.
- Perform other actions contrary to those agreed in the collective agreement.
It should be noted that the listed misconduct may well be the reason for the dismissal of the offending employee. Depremiration is a milder punishment, and the employer decides on this type of sanction. In any case, the actions of the head are considered justified in the face of the law only if there is an act of violation signed by the persons who were present at its preparation.
Reduction or cancellation of an irregular bonus
This type of financial incentive is paid to employees when they have fulfilled certain conditions, for example, a plan for the production of a certain amount of products. At the same time, both an individual employee and an entire team can be awarded. The size of the award is determined by the leader after analyzing the completed task.
Moreover, the material remuneration specified in the contract for the fulfillment of specific conditions must be paid if all the requirements have been met.
If the condition is not fulfilled (planned indicators are not achieved), depremiration is the issue of only the salary amount without a bonus.
What the law says about penalties for workers
All labor relations between the employer and subordinates are regulated by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. An indication that managers can award rewards for good work and sanctions for disciplinary violations is contained in Section 191. It also mentions material types of rewards.
The following article (192 TC) provides for the types of punishments that an employer may apply:
- Rebuke.
- Comment.
- Dismissal.
The depremization of employees is not indicated here, however, there is a clarification that for one misconduct an employee can be subjected to only one type of punishment. That is, the appointment of a reprimand, and the deprivation of a bonus for one case of violation will be declared illegal.
However, there are examples of depremiation that relate to several violations. This may be the deprivation of a monthly monetary remuneration for untimely arrival at work, and the refusal to issue an annual bonus due to non-fulfillment of the plan. In this case, two misconducts take place, and the application of two punishments is lawful.
Among other things, the leader may refuse to pay incentives even for what members of the team do not regard as an appropriate basis, giving him the right to apply employee depremization. Example: untidy appearance, talking on a cell phone during business hours, visiting social networks from a work computer.
How is the process of depremization
Company employees may be completely or partially deprived of systematic bonuses, the accrual of which does not depend on the results of their work.
As an example, it is worth considering a salary bonus (5,000 rubles) for the fact that disciplinary violations are not committed. This means that all employees who observe labor discipline are guaranteed to receive a bonus (5,000 rubles). Those members of the team who become violators of the discipline can be fined (reduction in material incentives) or are deprived of the bonus (depremization).
The procedure for issuing a disciplinary sanction:
- The head must draw up an act of violation. To draw up the document, several people are invited as witnesses.
- Then the employee who committed the offense writes an explanatory note.
- At the next stage, an order should be drawn up on the depremization of the employee with an indication of the period. If it is a matter of reducing the premium, then they develop a corresponding document, indicating in it a violation and the amount withheld.
- The violator receives his copy of the order, confirming with a signature that he is familiar with the content.
An order for depremization shall be drawn up within a month from the date on which a violation was discovered.
Is it possible to challenge the deprivation of monetary reward
If the employee considers that the measures of material punishment applied to him were unlawful, he has three months to sue.
The Labor Code gives employees of companies and organizations the right to apply to the court or to the labor inspectorate (Article 392).
In court, the plaintiff will be asked to present an order for depremization or to indicate the fact of its absence in the application. The employer will have to provide evidence that there has been a disciplinary violation or the tasks assigned have not been completed. To conduct the trial, it is necessary to provide an act on the violation detected, an explanatory note from the employee, a time sheet and a collective agreement with an appendix that describes the system of deprivation.
When the violation did occur, the intentions of the employee of the enterprise matter. His act could be planned or random.
Excuse will not be given to the employee who did not appear on the shift due to a hangover or lack of sleep caused by drinking the day before. Moreover, if he was poisoned by food and was forced to seek medical help, the cause of intoxication does not matter. This will be recognized as circumstances independent of the plaintiff.
A proof from the employee will be a certificate from the emergency room indicating the date of the call and the nature of the medical care that was provided. If the data are reliable, the employer does not have the right to apply disciplinary punishment to the victim.
Justification of the employee
In situations where, after applying to the court, the employee was acquitted, he is entitled to the following types of compensation:
- Restoration of the position that he held before his dismissal.
- Receiving moral and material compensation for an unfair charge.
- Accrual of funds for forced absenteeism. Their size is calculated as the average daily earnings.
For the employer, the consequences will be as follows:
- He will have to pay the costs of litigation (lawyers, lawyers).
- If there has been a violation of the Labor Law, penalties will be applied to it .
- He may face a deterioration in labor discipline in his enterprise.
Depremization due to mobile phone use
The use of this type of punishment is considered one of the most controversial, as the employee’s misconduct is not obvious.
Even if there is a clause in the labor or collective agreement prohibiting employees from using mobile phones during working hours, deprementing for such an offense often causes disputes between subordinates and the manager. To resolve them, the parties often resort to the help of the judicial system.
For the employer, the danger lies in the fact that the employee can give good reason for his action or even prove the absence of a violation. For example, an excuse is considered an emergency conversation in order to find out the state of health of a sick relative or the answer to a call from a school teacher who educates the employee’s children.
In the case when the depremiation system includes precisely telephone conversations, the justification will be the proof that the employee did not call, but checked the mail or text message.
Refund of paid premium
There are times when the employer may demand that the remuneration paid to the employee be returned. The reason is accounting errors or the identification of violations committed by the employee.
In order to return a bonus issued in error, the employer must provide reliable evidence supported by documents.
If he turns out to be right, then the illegally paid funds will be deducted from the next employee salary.
In the absence of strong evidence, the issue can be resolved in a contractual manner, and the funds will be returned with the consent of the employee. Any reduction in the amount of the employee’s salary without his knowledge and consent is regarded as a violation of the Labor Code. For such misconduct, the employer may be held administratively liable.