Employee Disciplinary Action: Step-by-Step Procedure

Today, one of the most important tasks of the head of any structure is to maintain discipline in the process of work. It is incredibly difficult to make all employees conscientiously carry out their work. Nevertheless, without this condition, the results of the organization can hardly be considered successful. How well the employee will perform his own duties depends on the working conditions, the characteristics of his personality, relations with the leader and many other factors. So, the employer has the ability to somewhat affect his work. To do this, there is encouragement or disciplinary action on the employee.

How widespread is the relevant practice in Russia? And beyond? What is disciplinary action against an employee? Are the dates in this case specific or relative? These and other equally interesting questions can be answered in the process of reading this article.

The concept of disciplinary action

Before considering the imposition of a disciplinary sanction on an employee, the terms and procedure for performing the procedure, it would be advisable to define the basic terminology of the issue. So, by disciplinary action should be understood a tool for organizing labor discipline. It is important to add that today this tool from a legal point of view remains one of the most difficult to use.

Having studied the provision on the imposition of disciplinary sanctions on employees, it is difficult to disagree with the fact that the most unpleasant consequences of a legal nature for an employer are possible when the question comes to dismissal for employee improper observance of labor discipline. It should be noted that such an act today is often followed by the appeal of a no longer relevant employee to the judiciary. As a rule, it requires reinstatement in one's own workplace, compensatory payment of absenteeism for compelled reasons, or compensation for moral damage. The imposition of a disciplinary sanction on an employee is carried out in accordance with a number of rules. Therefore, they must be followed in order to avoid the discretion of the judicial authorities as unlawful.

The implementation of the procedure. General information

An order to impose a disciplinary sanction on an employee cannot be executed without a disciplinary offense. So, the latter should be understood as improper performance (or non-performance at all) by the employee of the labor duties assigned to him. In considering conflicts of a labor nature in the judiciary or during inspection inspections, the employer should prove two points. Among them are the guilty actions of the employee and the observance of the procedure containing the imposition of a disciplinary sanction on the employee for one or another misconduct. It would be advisable to examine directly the procedure for imposing a disciplinary sanction. In the documentary plan, it consists of the following stages:

• An operation to fix an illegal act.
• Requesting and further providing employee with explanations.
• The imposition of a disciplinary sanction (the sample is presented in the theoretical aspect below).

Then, when the employee prefers to refuse to provide explanations or approval of the order by means of his own signature at each stage of the current procedure, an act should be drawn up regarding the employee's refusal to perform certain actions. This document is formed by the officials of one or another organization, which is responsible for documenting misconduct of a disciplinary nature.

If the corresponding category of duties has not been established in relation to specific officials, then all the documentation accompanying the imposition of a disciplinary sanction on an employee is drawn up on the initiative of the authorities of the offending employee or personnel of the personnel department. In the following chapters, each of the stages of the procedure so widespread today is examined in detail.

Step one: fixing employee misconduct

The imposition of a disciplinary sanction on an employee (the Labor Code of the Russian Federation in this case serves as the basis) takes place only after he has committed an unlawful misconduct. The duties of an employee are determined through Article 21 of the Russian labor law. So, in accordance with the presented standards, the employee agrees to abide by the rules regarding the internal labor schedule of the structure and discipline of work activities. The employer in article 22 of the Russian Labor Code is vested with the right to hold employees liable for disciplinary action, while observing the procedure for imposing a disciplinary sanction. It is established by labor law, as well as other federal laws.

In accordance with article 189 of the Russian Labor Code, labor discipline should be defined as submission to certain rules of conduct, mandatory for all employees. These rules are determined not only by Russian labor legislation, but also by other laws, a collective agreement, an agreement, an employment contract, as well as local regulatory acts of the organization. So, before applying the procedure for imposing a disciplinary sanction on an employee, the employer must determine whether this employee has violated the job responsibilities established by the employment contract and job description.

It should be noted that the category of employee duties should also include the implementation of the rules related to the internal labor schedule, labor protection instructions and other regulatory documents that are relevant to the company and which the employee was introduced to during the hiring process (article 68 of the Labor Code) , as well as in case of its amendment or introduction (article 22 of the Labor Code).

To confirm that the employee has become familiar with the requirements defined by law and the employer, he must personally put down the date and signature. This moment is key in terms of confirming the legality of the use of disciplinary action in the future. In addition to familiarizing the employee with legal acts of a local nature, a nuance is important, according to which the documentation should be drawn up in compliance with absolutely all requirements established by law.

additional information

The step-by-step procedure for imposing a disciplinary sanction on an employee in the first stage includes fixing the employee’s misconduct. So, this chapter provides additional information on a relevant issue. The employer must make sure that the violation implemented by the employee, one way or another, meets all the criteria for disciplinary misconduct (article 192 of the Labor Code). As it turned out, the latter should be understood as non-fulfillment or improper fulfillment by the employee of his own fault of the labor duties assigned to him. Only after this can one consider the procedure, the deadlines for imposing a disciplinary sanction, as well as other aspects affecting the case. So, one or several actions that correspond to the following circumstances can be considered a disciplinary offense:

• The implementation of specific actions (or abstention from their implementation) is the labor obligation of the employee.So, when considering a case in the judicial authorities, the employer must prove that the act committed (or not completed) by the employee, after which it is necessary to go through a certain procedure for imposing a disciplinary sanction on the employee, is in fact one of his duties.
• Labor obligations should be ignored or improperly implemented. It is important to add that this non-fulfillment, one way or another, should be proved by the testimony of witnesses, relevant documentation (for example, time sheets) and so on.
• The employee’s behavior must be unlawful, that is, it must not comply with the obligations specified in the employment contract and Russian labor law. It is important to add that the imposition of a disciplinary sanction in the form of a reprimand (for example, for absolutely lawful behavior) is impossible. For example, an employee who refused to be divided into certain parts of his annual leave cannot be held disciplined (article 125 of the Russian Labor Code).
• Behavior of an unlawful nature, one way or another, must relate to the employee's performance of his labor duties. It should be noted that it is impossible to impose a penalty for the fact that the employee refused to fulfill public instructions or violated the rules of conduct in a particular public place.
• Employee behavior must be guilty, in other words, reckless or intentional.

When is the imposition of a penalty impossible?

Penalizing an employee is a prohibited procedure when there are good reasons why the employee did not perform his duties properly. These include the following items:

• Lack of proper working conditions or materials.
• Disability employee.
• Calling an employee to law enforcement or judicial authorities.
• Various natural disasters (e.g. floods).
• Failure to fulfill the assignment of the management in connection with the execution of other instructions (when it is impossible to realize everything at once).

Thus, in the presence of at least one of the circumstances presented, it is prohibited to impose a penalty on an employee, since his behavior is not considered a disciplinary offense.

Step Two: Requirement and Further Submission of Explanations

It is important to note: before applying certain types of disciplinary sanctions (fines, reprimands, dismissal, etc.), the employer agrees to take note of the employee’s explanations. They must be submitted in writing. It is important to note that the employee has the right to use various methods in the process of formulating the explanation. The primary method in this list is an explanatory note. The document should be generated by the employee by hand in any form. Nevertheless, a number of organizations practice the use of screen forms for coherence and logical explanations, where the employee is given the opportunity to fill out cells that are designed to answer the following questions:

• What are the motives for disciplinary misconduct?
• Does the employee consider himself guilty of a misconduct?
• If not, then who (in accordance with the opinion of the employee) should be prosecuted?

Step Three: Penalty

The imposition of penalties of a disciplinary nature is expressed in the written execution of the order and bringing it to the employee under signature. The following are typical irregularities of the employer in respect of the penalty, entailing the abolition of the procedure or the restoration of the employee:

• Only one penalty may correspond to one disciplinary offense.Nevertheless, in case of non-fulfillment or improper fulfillment by the employee of the labor duties assigned to him, despite the imposition of one penalty of a disciplinary nature, another can be applied to him, including dismissal.
• Circumstances are prohibited when, for the implementation of one misconduct of a disciplinary nature, the employee is first subjected to one appropriate penalty (for example, reprimand), and then the second.
• Prior to disciplinary action, a written explanation must be required from the employee. Then, when the document is executed after imposing a penalty, the illegality of the procedure takes place.
• Disciplinary action is applied immediately after the discovery of an illegal act, but no later than thirty days from the date of its discovery. So, the term for imposing a disciplinary sanction on an employee is one month. It is important to note that the day of detection must be considered the day when the direct supervisor of the offending employee was notified of the misconduct. This provision does not depend on whether the manager has the right to impose penalties of a disciplinary nature. As it turned out, the period for imposing a disciplinary sanction on an employee is thirty days, but it does not include the time spent on vacation or illness.
• The order regarding the application of the penalty with the obligatory indication of the motives for the application must be announced to the employee within three business days from the date of its publication against receipt.
• If the case is brought to court, the employer will have to prove the circumstances that would fully justify the legitimacy of his position.
• Certain elements of the documentation provided by the employer, as well as other evidence of employee misconduct, should not be in conflict with each other.

Proof of

It is important to note that evidence in the judiciary may be:

• Witness testimonies or eyewitness accounts in writing.
• The following written evidence: contracts, acts, business correspondence, certificates, as well as other materials and documents executed under digital or graphic recording.
• Evidence of material nature, audio and video recordings.
• Expert opinions.

Varieties of disciplinary offenses and penalties

Acts of a disciplinary nature are continuous, repeated, withdrawn and terminated. By continuing misconduct should be understood misconduct, which lasts for a sufficiently long time period. Then, when upon finding a disciplinary offense, the employer applied the appropriate penalty, but this misconduct continues, then the employee must apply a second disciplinary sanction, including his dismissal from the workplace.

Under repeated disciplinary misconduct should be considered misconduct, re-implemented after some time after the suppression of such an action. For example, an employee, after announcing a comment from the management for being late for work for a certain period of time, arrives on time, but after a certain time interval starts to be late again.

What else?

With a disciplinary sanction taken off, it is necessary to consider the exclusion of a disciplinary sanction when the employee is not exposed to a new one within a year after applying the sanction. This provision is regulated by article 194 of the Russian Labor Code. It is necessary to add that the recovery is removed from the employee sometimes even before the expiration of the annual period. Thus, the employer in accordance with this provision (part two of Article 194 of the Russian Labor Code) is vested with the right to deduct the penalty from the employee:

• On his own initiative.
• At the request of the employee directly.
• At the request of the direct management of the offending employee.
• At the request of the representative body of employees.

By terminated misconduct should be understood misconduct, after which the employee independently discovers a labor shortcoming and uses all methods available to him to eliminate the error or minimize the consequences.