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Employment termination guide

A common rule is that an employer should hand over to an employee an employment record book and pay salary. One sometimes gets confused about the necessary documents to be prepared for an employee. To make things clear, we have made a brief guide for you on the steps to be done on the last day of employment.

1.WHAT DOCUMENTS SHOULD BE HANDED OVER ON THE LAST DAY OF WORK

The employee must receive:
  • an employment record book with an employment termination record or employment history (STD-R form)
  • a payslip
  • a record of the length of pensionable service (sub-section 1.2 of sub-section 1, section 1 of EFS-1 form)
  • a statement of insurance contributions (section 3 “Personal Data on Insured Persons”)
  • data on insured persons for whom additional insurance contributions for the funded pension component and employer’s contributions have been paid (sub-section 3, section 1 of EFS-1 form)

NB1: if, for some reason, you fail to hand over an employment record book on the last day of work (the employee is absent or refuses to take it), on the same day notify the employee to come and take the employment record book or suggest posting it. It is recommended to send the notice by official post with an enclosure list to all known employee’s addresses as well as by email and messengers (this might be helpful in case of further disputes).

Upon the employee’s written application, you need to hand over:
  • a copy of the order on termination
  • a statement of income and taxes (former 2-NDFL form)
  • a certificate 182-N form (since 2023 it is no longer valid but is still an applicable document stipulating data for the Social Fund of Russia on the social contributions)

NB2: it is recommended to have proofs that all the documents have been handed over to the employee. It may be either the employee’s written confirmation (if the documents are handed over in person) or an enclosure list/postal waybill (if the documents are posted).


2.WHEN PAYMENTS SHOULD BE MADE

Payments must be made on the day of employment termination,

except where:
  • the employee is not at work on the last day of employment (for example, because of sickness) and gets a salary in cash (in this case, payment should be made no later than the next day after the employee demands payment)
  • the employee has been on vacation with the following employment termination (in this case, the salary should be paid three calendar days prior to vacation start and all other payments should be made on the day preceding the first day of vacation)
  • the employment agreement is terminated due to the employee’s death (in this case, payments are made in favour of the employee’s family member within a week from the date the family member presents the necessary documents)

What if payments are delayed?

An employer must pay a monetary compensation to an employee for every day of the delay not less than 1/150 of the effective key rate of the Russian Central Bank (the current rate is 21% per annum).

We advise to make payments together with the monetary compensation for the delay without waiting for an employee’s request. It will save your money and time since disputing will be pointless.

NB: employment termination is very unlikely to be illegal for short payment delays caused by technical reasons (for example, end of the banking day).