What is not a disciplinary sanction: concept and types

No one is immune from mistakes during the performance of labor duties. However, the employer has every right to impose a punishment on the employee who committed the oversight, corresponding to the gravity of his fault. In particular, disciplinary action. It can be fraught with both verbal reprimand and dismissal of the employee.

What is and what is not a disciplinary action? This we have to find out in the article. We also consider the types of such penalties, the procedure for their application, and the possibility of appealing against the decision of the employer.

What it is?

A disciplinary sanction is a punishment that may be imposed on a worker for violation of certain requirements of labor discipline. What is meant here?

Violation of labor discipline is the failure to perform / improper performance by the employee of those duties that are prescribed in his labor contract, job description.

When are sanctions imposed?

We have examined what is a disciplinary action. In addition, certain sanctions are imposed on a working citizen in the following cases:

Violation of their own job description.
Violation, ignoring the requirements of local (internal) acts of the employing organization.
Commitments at the workplace of actions prohibited by job descriptions, other regulatory documents of the employer.
Systemic, constant periodic non-compliance with labor discipline. For example, an employee is late every day to the beginning of his work shift. Or not at all at the workplace.

As for the punishment, here it is dependent on the severity of the worker’s misconduct.

Not a disciplinary action ...

Let’s take a closer look at what actions of the employee under domestic law do not lead to sentencing by the employer. Disciplinary action is not mandatory in case of refusal of an employee:

Fulfill personal instructions of the management team.
Participate in various kinds of public works and events. In particular, rallies, parades, subbotniks, processions, demonstrations, etc.
Perform any additional official functions not expressly indicated in the employment contract, job descriptions of the worker.
Perform illegal actions on behalf of the governing body.

Disciplinary action is not mandatory if the employee participated in a strike organized in full compliance with legislative norms.

Varieties of responsibility

Let us turn to the Labor Code. Under this act, the types of disciplinary action are as follows:

Comment. The mildest sanction on this list. It is used in relation to the worker who committed the violation for the first time. And in the case when the offense is relatively frivolous. For example, being late for the start of a work shift.
Rebuke. Such a sanction is announced even with a more serious misconduct of the worker. It is issued in the form of an order. Legally, a reprimand is considered a more severe punishment than a remark, but in practice they are not much different. The similarity is that the consequences for workers are about the same.
Dismissal. The most tangible sanction. Accordingly, she is appointed for the most serious violations and misconduct in the workplace. The result - termination of the employment contract.

We examined which penalties are disciplinary. There is a definite connection between them.So, the announcement of the second reprimand for the year leads to the dismissal of the employee.

To impose such a penalty, it is necessary to correctly and timely record the incident. It is impossible to hold a violating employee liable for incorrectly executed documentation.

It is worth noting that reprimand, dismissal, remark are disciplinary sanctions only for civilians. In relation to civil servants, military personnel, other methods of official punishment are applied, which are set out in special provisions and charters governed by the federal legislation of the Russian Federation. Disciplinary responsibility in their respect is expanded by other additional forms of punishment.

Penalty Additional Sanctions

Remark, dismissal, reprimand are disciplinary sanctions. But in addition to this, in companies with a developed system of material incentives for workers, other sanctions may also be imposed on workers. For example, the offender may be partially / completely deprived of the allowance for the salary. Or stop paying the bonus for a certain period of time.

We know what a disciplinary action is. But besides this, the employer can also practice such a method of punishing employees as dismissal. But here he relies, as a rule, on serious grounds:

The commission of an immoral act, which entailed the loss of confidence by the employer. For example, damage to property of the organization, theft in small and medium sizes.
Failure to comply with directives and orders of direct management.
Unfair performance of duties prescribed in an employment contract.
Publicization of any confidential data - commercial, personal secrets.
Systematic absenteeism, lateness to the beginning of the working day. Unauthorized departure from the workplace before the end of the working day.
Violation of regulations, labor protection standards, which entailed serious consequences up to injury, death of another employee.
Appearance at the workplace in an inadequate form. For example, in a state of alcoholic, toxic, drug intoxication.
Other situations provided for by current Russian legislation.

Imposition of punishment

Dismissal is not a disciplinary action? On the contrary. Dismissal is an obvious example of disciplinary punishment. Its imposition occurs according to a certain algorithm, divided into several stages:

Fixing the fact of violation of labor regulations prescribed by the company. What happened must be documented. An appropriate act is drawn up, a memorandum from the management of the offender, the decision of a special disciplinary commission.
Explanation. After the fact of violation is documented, the culprit is requested a written explanation of his misconduct. Such a requirement of the employer itself must necessarily be drawn up on paper and transferred to the offender against signature.
Decision-making on the guilt of the worker, election of disciplinary punishment against him. At this stage, all collected documentation is critically evaluated. The severity of the misconduct committed by the employee is determined. Be sure to take into account circumstances that may mitigate his guilt.

An explanatory question

A disciplinary sanction of an employee is not all that cannot be called a remark, reprimand or dismissal. An employee may refuse to accept a request for an explanatory note. In the event of a refusal or failure to provide such a document within more than 2 business days, an act is drawn up fixing this fact.

If written explanations were not provided by the employee, this is not an obstacle to imposing disciplinary punishment in relation to him (according to article 193 of the Labor Code).

In the case when the guilty person was nevertheless provided with an explanatory note, it is attached to the rest of the documents on its violation. The document must be considered by the employer. If the latter considers the written reasons and circumstances of the misconduct to be valid, then disciplinary action does not occur. Otherwise, the note will serve as the basis for its imposition.

But you need to remember: if the evidence collected on the fact of the violation of the employee is not enough, then the employer does not have the right to impose a disciplinary sanction on the worker.

Order

If you choose which of the following is not a disciplinary action, then you need to remember only three concepts. This remark, reprimand and dismissal. Only they in the Russian Federation are considered a disciplinary sanction. Everything else is not.

If, based on the results of consideration of the documentation relating to the employee’s misconduct, the employer decided to take a disciplinary sanction against the employee, he must draw up his decision in the relevant act. Order in this case.

The document contains the following data:

Personal data of the offending employee, his position, division of the company where he works.
A capacious but sufficient description of the incident with the obligatory indication of references to legislative norms.
Conclusions about the presence of guilt of the worker, the severity of the offense committed by him.
A kind of punishment.
Grounds for enforcement. They are the details of the documentation, which was a violation.

Fully executed, endorsed by the head of the organization, the order is brought to the delinquent employee strictly under signature within 3 business days. If the violator refuses, in turn, to sign this document, a separate act is drawn up for this fact.

As for the labor book of the violator, it is unlawful to enter information on such disciplinary punishments as a remark or reprimand. The document contains information only on the dismissal, its grounds on the Labor Code.

In relation to management

If you choose which of the listed penalties is not disciplinary, then you need to remember only three concepts. The disciplinary punishment is reprimand, dismissal and remark.

They can be appointed not only for ordinary workers, but also for the heads of structural divisions of the company or organization as a whole on the part of the employer.

The collection procedure in this case takes place in several steps:

An authorized representative on behalf of all employees (in most cases they are the trade union) submits information to the head office of the company confirming the fact of a violation by the head or his deputies.
The application is considered by the employer, after which the decision on it is communicated to the applicants.
If the facts presented by the employer are deemed sufficient to impose a disciplinary sanction on the head, then a remark, reprimand, and dismissal may be announced in his regard.

It is important to remember that for one misconduct you can impose only one single penalty.

Duration and Overlay

Once again, we remind readers that dismissal, reprimand, and verbal reprimand are forms of disciplinary action. As for the deadlines, it can be imposed within a month from the date of detection of misconduct. But no later than six months from the moment of its commission.

It should be noted that this period does not include the absence of a delinquent employee in the workplace for good reasons. For example, the period of vacation, being on sick leave. The time of criminal investigations into violation of the employee is also not included in the general period of limitation of the misconduct of the worker.

According to Russian laws, a disciplinary sanction can be presented within a year from the moment the head issues the order to impose it. If at this time the employee managed to deflect himself again, the period will be extended to the date of the last sentence.

Upon dismissal, respectively, the action of disciplinary action is unlimited. It is no longer subject to cancellation. The only thing - it can be canceled by the labor dispute committee, having achieved the reinstatement of the employee.

In addition, the dismissed may again be employed in the organization, where he was determined by disciplinary action. If at the same time he settles in another department, unit, then such a punishment is nullified.

Withdrawal

A disciplinary sanction can be annulled in two ways - automatically and on the initiative of the employer. In the first case, according to Art. 194 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, this happens a year after the punishment. But at the same time, the main condition must be met. The employee must avoid any violations of labor discipline during this year.

If the term of such punishment has expired, then this means that the employee does not have disciplinary sanctions at all. Also, the worker himself can use several methods for early lifting of the sanction:

On his own initiative.
According to the guilty plea.
At the request of the immediate supervisor.
At the request of the representative body of workers - the trade union.

The transfer to another position is also the basis for the dismissal of workers from disciplinary action. As for the early lifting of such a sanction, this is necessarily documented by the relevant order of the head.

Appeal

If the employer has imposed a disciplinary sanction, you have every right to appeal this decision. But in specific cases:

Your fault is missing or has not been proven.
The employer did not request a written explanation about what happened.
There was a repeated penalty for the same misconduct.
Duration of punishment.
Important procedural requirements were not complied with. For example: improper execution of the order, the documentation was not taken into account, which confirmed the valid reasons for the misconduct and so on.

An employee may apply to the state labor inspectorate to protect his rights. The task of this body is precisely to analyze the actions of workers and employers for compliance with the provisions of the Labor Code. If the inspection failed to establish justice, the employee has the right to file a lawsuit, confirming his correctness with documents to the court.

In the Russian Federation there are three types of disciplinary sanctions. This is a reprimand, remark and dismissal. In addition to this, employers also practice other forms of punishment: deprivation of bonuses, removal from office, etc.