Cancellation of work book. Why is there no longer a need for work records?

Document flow will become easier, but employers will know less about candidates

The work record book, which will celebrate its centenary in two years, may not live to see the anniversary. The idea of its abolition has been in the air for a long time, and now, it seems, the authorities have moved from talk to action. To begin with, small enterprises will be allowed to abandon the Soviet legacy. The government has already submitted the corresponding amendments to the Labor Code to the State Duma. If everything goes smoothly, paper work books will be completely eliminated, and they will be replaced by electronic databases.

We started with small companies with a staff of no more than 15 people. Many enterprises, in order to avoid paperwork, are already hiring without labor - under a contract. The new bill only streamlines existing practice. In this case, the main document becomes the employment contract. It may contain a clause that the book is kept at the employee’s home. In it, the employer must make a record of the reason and date of dismissal of the employee.

Why is a work book no longer needed? It’s hard for people who were hired about thirty years ago to imagine that they can do without the usual green, gray or blue book - it’s the same as without a passport. The older generation believes that without a piece of paper a person is not even a person. In Soviet times, it was impossible to apply for a pension without a work book. However, since 2002, for the formation of a pension, length of service has no significance, and only the period during which insurance contributions were received into the Pension Fund is taken into account. All this fully applies to the calculation of sick leave and maternity benefits.

However, if work books are eliminated, they should be replaced by something more universal. In the personnel department of MK, for example, they spoke out for changes. The absence of paper media relieves enterprises of responsibility for their storage. The existing rules in this regard are quite strict: work books must be kept in a safe or iron cabinet under lock and key, without access by strangers. On the other hand, experts are not confident that employees and employers are fully prepared for the transition from paper to electronic media. “Theoretically, it is possible to digitize all work books, but then this information should be stored in some kind of common database accessible to the employer and employee,” HR experts argue.

There is such experience in Russia. The Federal Tax Service has long stored its database in electronic form, abandoning paper. The number of users, the volume of information, and the regularity of its updating are comparable to the work of personnel services. The state has not yet decided who is responsible for storing and maintaining the relevant database of work records - it will be the Ministry of Labor, Rostrud, the Pension Fund or someone else. In any case, the portal will provide “personal accounts” for both employees and employers, who will only have access to their own information.

Nowadays, an HR specialist just needs to look at the work record book, and they can see the applicant’s whole life in the palm of their hand - at what age did he find his first job, for what reasons did he leave the previous one, and so on. For example, a work report that is too “plump” with a large number of entries can cause a refusal to hire. An employee who is in conflict with the employer may face a reprimand, inclusion in the labor force or dismissal under the “wolf” article. With the elimination of work books, perhaps all this will become a thing of the past. The same employment contract will help out those who do not want to “sully” their work path with an undignified place of work. But it will be much more difficult for the employer to monitor the employee’s career. You will have to involve the security service, which will go through the applicant’s work history through their channels.

“It is worrying that with the transition to electronic databases there is no guarantee of the reliability of this type of media. If something happens to the online version of the work book, how can an employee confirm his previous work experience? Look for witnesses?” says Lyubov Khrapylina, professor of the Department of Labor and Social Policy at RANEPA.

Ksenia Mikhailichenko, a lawyer at the Center for Social and Labor Rights, considers such fears to be groundless: “Now it costs the employer nothing to “dissolve” the office, as they say, until better times. And then look for the director abroad, the office is closed, and with it the documents of the employees. With the abolition of work records, such situations should no longer arise.”

On the other hand, the rejection of paper work records should not be abrupt. The process will take several years.

A work book is a document in which records are made about the employee’s work experience. A little less than 100 years ago, a work book was approved in the USSR as a document confirming a person’s work experience and providing grounds for assigning a pension from the state.

In 2002, the need to have a work book to receive a pension was abolished, which gave some employers grounds to register employees for work under an employment contract without making entries in the work book. Over the past few years, the Russian government has been actively considering the need to abolish paper work books as an outdated way of storing information about an employee.

Law on work books

The need for the employer to store and maintain employee work books is regulated by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 225. The Resolution describes the procedure for storing, maintaining, making entries and changes in work books, as well as the procedure for issuing a document to an employee after dismissal.

Each employer, in accordance with the current legislation of the Russian Federation, must store the work books of all employees in a special safe, to which unauthorized persons have no access, and regularly, as necessary, make new entries in the book about changes in the employee’s position, issuance of thanks, reprimands, etc. For failure to comply with the procedure established by Resolution No. 225, penalties are provided.

The new bills are designed to eliminate the need for the employer to store and maintain employee work records.

Reform on the abolition of work records

Historical reference

Work books were first introduced in 1918 by the Labor Code of the RSFSR, in which Art. 80 stated that every worker is required to have a work book, while this article had an appendix regulating the procedure for maintaining work books. Then, by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR dated October 5, 1918, “On work books for non-workers,” work books were introduced for certain categories of citizens considered non-workers instead of identity cards or passports. This document also contained the form of the work book.

Work books will be abolished in 2017 for enterprises with fewer than 15 employees. If the changes allow employers to spend less resources on maintaining and storing documents and at the same time do not make it difficult to record the insurance length of employees, work books will be completely abolished in the next few years.

The abolition of work books is possible thanks to the creation of all-Russian electronic databases, where information about all officially employed employees will be entered. Online accounts will be created on one official website for all employers and thus they will be able to track and make changes. Using their own personal information and access password, employees will also be able to view all the information available to them, so the abolition of work books in 2017 will actually lead to the emergence of a more convenient electronic form of work documents.

Today, there is no need to store work records to confirm the presence of work experience. When determining the amount of an employee’s pension, only his insurance experience is taken into account, which is confirmed by information on accruals to the insurance fund and the tax office. An employed person must have his own insurance account, to which the employer monthly transfers funds provided by law, which affect the size of the employee’s future pension.

In connection with economic transformations in our country, the issue of abolishing work books as a relic of the Soviet past was raised more than once: during the reform of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation in 2006, then in 2012, but these initiatives were not enshrined in law. Discussions on this issue continue to this day.

Positive aspects of the reform

Work books are not used today in most progressive countries of the world. The use of a single electronic database is an international standard that has stood the test of time in many countries. In addition, many employers will be able to reduce the costs of storing documents, because employee work books must be stored in safes or in warehouses that can be used for other purposes.

With the cessation of the need for constant demonstration and verification of work records, document flow will be simplified. Now employers will be able to limit themselves to monthly transfers to the tax office and reports, which will save working time.

Watch the video about the cancellation of work records

Negative aspects of the reform

Historical reference

By Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated December 20, 1938 N 1320, work books of a single standard were introduced on January 15, 1939 throughout the entire territory of the Soviet Union. In order to improve the procedure for maintaining labor records, in 1973, by Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions dated 09/06/1973 N 656, a new form of labor records was approved, which existed until the end of 2003. From January 1, 2004, by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 04/16/2003 N 225 “On Work Books” approved new forms of work books and an insert in it for all categories of workers, which are still in effect at the present time.

The information specified in the work book is not taken into account when calculating the pension, but the document is still required during the employment process. Due to the fact that the work book contains information about all thanks and reprimands to the employee, the reasons for previous dismissals, the future employer could find out a lot of necessary information about the employee from the designated document. Now the employer will learn all the necessary information about the employee from the resume and recommendations.

After the cancellation of work records, the employee will be able to hide information about reprimands and the reason for dismissal from the previous place of work at his own discretion, but a prudent employer will be able to make inquiries on his own if necessary. In addition, unscrupulous employers will no longer be able to threaten employees with dismissal based on the article and negative entries in the work book.

Despite the active discussion of the issue, it is still not clear whether work books will be abolished in the Russian Federation. The law on the abolition of work books for enterprises with up to 15 employees has not yet entered into force, and a complete abandonment of the document is planned only in a few years. After the complete abolition of work books, their documentary alternative will be employment contracts, which are drawn up upon hiring.

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Since 2002, the value of a work record began to decline. When assigning pensions and benefits, the state began to be interested only in the insurance period, which is not included in this document. And even then they began to call it a “Soviet anachronism,” predicting quick oblivion for the familiar crust. Such conversations continue today, but the work book still remains a necessary document for employment. Therefore, for working citizens and pensioners, the relevant question is: will work books be abolished, and what is planned to replace them with.

Officials' plans

Since the late 30s of the last century, the work book has been the main document confirming the length of service and professional achievements of an employee. This purpose is stated in the Labor Code (Article 66). But officials seriously decided to abandon this document. At least in paper form. They are going to implement their plans in stages.

The abolition of work books did not happen in 2018, although there was a lot of information in the media that their electronic analogs would begin to be used immediately after 2018. In particular, last summer it was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, speaking at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.

It was expected that the reform would first affect small organizations employing no more than 15 people, and then larger firms would join it. However, May is already expiring, and no significant changes have yet been made to either the Labor Code or the Rules for maintaining labor books (Government Decree No. 225 of April 16, 2003).

Faced with certain obstacles and criticism, Ministry of Labor officials slightly pushed back the deadline for the gradual abolition of work records. It is now scheduled to launch in January 2020. This date, in particular, was called by Lyubov Yeltsova, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Protection. However, it is possible that this deadline will be postponed.

Electronic alternative

When work books are abolished in Russia, electronic documentation will take their place. It is not yet known exactly what its format will be. Most likely, this will be a digital database, similar to the one that is formed by employers today - for reporting to the Pension Fund. But additional columns will appear in it, where the employee’s length of service will be recorded.

While the system is being tested and its operation is being fine-tuned, they want to provide citizens with special plastic cards, which they will begin to present when applying for employment. On them, in addition to passport data, TIN number and insurance certificate, it is planned to enter information about the work activity of the card holder.

Concerns of employees and employers

Not all citizens and employers find the transition to electronic work books necessary or safe. Even the Minister of Labor and Social Protection Maxim Topilin noted that this project is artificially lobbied and is not relevant either for organizations or for workers.

Critics of digital innovations, not without reason, believe that the abolition of work books in paper format could have negative consequences:

the burden on employers will increase (for example, funds will be required to purchase software and train HR staff);
there may be a system failure or a deliberate virus attack that will destroy data or make it unreliable;
employees will have to control whether the employer makes contributions to the Pension Fund for them, that is, whether they have an insurance period;
it will be more difficult for an employer to determine the “value” of a future employee, for example, to find out whether he was fired from his previous job due to an “article”, whether he had any commendations, etc.

But whatever the concerns, the abolition of work records in Russia is inevitable. Despite the ambiguity of this action, the state will strive to digitize document flow as much as possible, if not completely. However, the process of introducing electronic work books throughout the country will drag on for several years, since workers and employers are not yet ready for it, either technically or “morally.”

The beginning of the year surprises Russians with an endless series of socio-economic and political news. The attitude of citizens to what is happening cannot be called unambiguous; certain news items cause outright negativity, and some cause bewilderment. There was an obvious misunderstanding latest news about the abolition of work books in 2017 in Russia, the shortcomings of this reformist project are noted not only by ordinary people, but also by lawyers involved in the field of labor relations.

Who and why decided to abolish labor

The Cabinet of Ministers submitted a draft amendment to the labor law back in April last year. But with a note that it will only affect small individual business enterprises. Such a company should have no more than 15 employees. Filling out and maintaining work books for such enterprises is not necessary. So, abolition of work books in 2017, order, in particular, provides in this part not only for the abolition of labor regulations, but also for the need to create local acts at micro-enterprises that regulate these aspects of labor relations with hired workers. And the document that, in fact, will replace it will be the established standard form of an employment contract or agreement. Thereby, The bill will fit perfectly into the framework of the new pension system, when responsibility for the employee’s working years and the formation of his pension account will be assigned almost entirely to the employer, excluding only the side of the matter when the citizen does not work at all.

This question also has a technical side to it. Namely, we are talking about the creation and formation of a single electronic or digital database, where all information about the employee’s working periods and contributions to extra-budgetary funds will flow. Thus, while in theory, the essence of this labor innovation looks like.

Consequences of the law: positive and negative aspects

To fully understand the complexities and possible consequences of this innovation in the field of labor relations, The following points are noted:

Necessityimprovement of information bases and personal information protection systems;
Opportunity archiving data electronically will significantly reduce the costs of creating documentary paper archives;
The process of document preparation itself will also be abolished, which will reduce the staff of the HR department.

As for the relationship with the new pension legislation, according to its provisions, for the calculation of pension payments, length of service does not matter, and only the periods of insurance payments are important.

In fact, abolition of work books in 2017 pursues purely good goals in relation to the employees themselves, and this reform should protect micro-enterprises from violations of the law regarding labor relations.

Despite the visible positive aspects of the bill, the issue of creating electronic databases remains relevant, and the agency that will manage the databases has not yet been decided. The ability of employers to access them has also not yet been thought through, as well as information security systems. As for reducing the costs of maintaining documentary archives, the costs of creating a new data storage and generation system will also require considerable funds.

Review of authoritative opinions

The fact that the labor document is the only document that allows the employee to prove the fact of his labor activity is what causes such conflicting opinions regarding its abolition.

Lawyers of well-known companies interpret the news from the point of view of the statement that the work book is losing its significance for the state, thus the document loses its confirmatory value. In other words, if the records in the labor record are not confirmed by personal accounts indicating the fact of transfer of funds to the funds in the same period, then the record indicating the fact of work will not be valid.

Thus, from the point of view of jurisprudence, the work book has lost its meaning. Its significance remains only in the minds of ordinary people, which causes fear that the length of service will not be proven in the future.

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11:36, 24 February 2016
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Today, a work book is the only document confirming a Russian’s work experience. However, recently the prospect of their abolition has been increasingly discussed. The process of canceling work books is planned to begin in 2017.

Similar plans were already announced in 2006 and 2012, however, they were never implemented in practice. Specialists from the legal company Markelov Group discuss the consequences and prospects of this process.

Today, the Russian Pension Fund receives data on a citizen’s work experience through personalized accounting of contributions received from the employer.

“Simply put, for how many years an organization makes contributions to the Pension Fund for its employee, so many years of work experience will be registered with him. Accordingly, for the state the existence of work records loses all meaning, because its main function is lost - confirmation of work experience. The state’s desire to abolish work books carries, among other things, the goal of bringing Russian legislation into line with international standards, according to which there is no need for a work book.”

Explains the chief specialist of the legal company "Markelov Group" in the field of labor disputes Olga Zinnatulina.

According to the Deputy Head of the Russian Ministry of Health and Social Development, Alexander Safonov, the work book will completely disappear from Russians’ use only by 2025.

“Micro-enterprises” will be the first to get rid of the obligation to maintain work records. The seriousness of the government's intentions is confirmed by the draft Federal Law "On Amendments to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation regarding the specifics of regulating the labor of persons working for employers who belong to the category of micro-enterprises."

Saratov lawyer Vadim Markelov clarifies: “Currently, the responsibilities of an individual entrepreneur include a standard list of responsibilities: to create a new employment record for an employee if there is none, to make entries in an existing document about the date of hiring, the position he occupied, a change in the employee’s position, as well as the date and reason for his dismissal. Information about employee incentives is also recorded there, for example, about awards issued, letters of gratitude, and about all punishments - reprimands, severe reprimands, etc. Labor legislation obliges individual entrepreneurs to keep work books similar to strict reporting forms, it is also necessary to keep a log of records and movements labor books. Violations of these labor law norms by micro-enterprises are punishable by a fine of 1 to 5 thousand rubles."

It would seem that for an individual entrepreneur, the abolition of the mandatory maintenance of work records only threatens with troubles and inconveniences.

“One of the disadvantages of abolishing work records, according to many Russians, is the lack of a familiar document confirming work experience. There is also a fear among citizens of the possibility of a systemic failure in the work of the tax service and pension fund programs: personal data on work experience may be distorted or lost altogether. But, in any case, such information does not disappear completely. It will be renewed automatically by restoring the system, or a citizen can always contact his previous employers to obtain documents confirming his experience.”

Considers the managing partner of the legal company "Markelov Group" Pavel Nepomnyashchiy.

The main disadvantage of the abolition of labor is the dishonesty of some employers. And here, in assessing the danger, experts agree with public opinion. If the employer does not make contributions to the Pension Fund, the employee will not have proof of work experience.

“It is this issue that requires detailed study at the legislative level”

Lawyer Vadim Markelov is confident.

For an individual entrepreneur, canceling a work book also has its advantages. To apply for a pension, an individual entrepreneur will not have to collect a huge amount of paperwork, stand for hours in endless queues, he will only need to submit a retirement application to the Pension Fund.

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