What the law says
In accordance with Art. 1 of Federal Law No. 2202-1 of January 17, 1992, the prosecutor’s office in the Russian Federation supervises compliance with laws. That is, you can contact the prosecutor’s office regarding any violation of the law.
According to Art. 10 of the same law, inaction, which includes non-payment of earnings, is grounds for appealing to this government agency.
The procedure for considering citizens' appeals is specified in Federal Law No. 59 of 05/02/2006 and the industry instruction approved by order of the Prosecutor General's Office No. 45 of 01/30/2013. It states (clause 3.1) that the application can be forwarded to another body in accordance with their competence.
IMPORTANT!
The law does not oblige a citizen to appeal the employer’s inaction in a specific government agency, where to write a statement about non-payment of wages, the citizen decides for himself. The choice is between the prosecutor's office at the location of the employer or employee (if the appeal is submitted to the authority not in accordance with its competence, it is redirected), the labor inspectorate, the supervisory authority and the court.
When can you complain to the prosecutor about your employer?
A complaint sent to the prosecutor's office is the most effective measure to resolve conflict situations between the employer and employees.
In case of delay in payment of wages, citizens can contact other authorities:
- labor inspection - sample application;
- court - sample claim to court;
- trade union department;
- labor dispute commission.
It is necessary to contact the prosecutor's office when it was not possible to eliminate the violation in the form of delayed wages on your own.
The advantage of this government agency is that its specialists have the right to represent the interests of citizens who contact them in all the organizations listed above.
The date of payment of wages must be reflected in local regulations. Citizens have the right to write a complaint on the first day of delay. In practice, such early treatment is quite rare.
The thing is that often the employer delays the moment by making empty promises to employees. After a certain period of time, the complaint may lose its validity, therefore, if the employer does not intend to resolve the problem peacefully, it is necessary to immediately take appropriate measures.
If the salary delay occurred during dismissal
In the process of terminating the employment relationship, the employer makes a settlement. The account of the resigning employee must be credited with all amounts due for payment. The employee must receive his money no later than on the day of dismissal.
If the rights of a working citizen are violated and the dismissal payment is not paid, he has the right to seek help from any higher authority, including the prosecutor's office. To do this, you need to follow only one rule - all actions carried out by the employee must not contradict the current norms of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
You can write a statement to the prosecutor about non-payment of wages and other payments even after dismissal. In this situation, the employee has no restrictions, there is no influence of restraining factors. For example, you don’t need to worry that your relationship with your employer will deteriorate.
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Submission methods
The procedure for submitting an application to the prosecutor's office includes several stages. Among them, the first is considered to be the collection of related documentation. In this case, you need to prepare:
- contract of employment;
- work book (provided in case of dismissal);
- documentation that reflects information about wages. Various timesheets, orders and settlement papers.
To collect the necessary documents, the employee can request their issuance to the employer.
Article 62 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation establishes that papers must be issued within 3 days from the date of application. Next, you should prepare a properly completed application.
Only after this the collected documentation is transferred to the prosecutor’s office at the place of registration of the company.
An application for delayed payment of wages can be submitted in several ways:
- by visiting the organization in person. In this case, it is necessary to prepare a second copy of the paper, in which the prosecutor will mark the acceptance of the application;
- via postal mail. The fact that the prosecutor's office has received documents must be confirmed by sending a notification.
How to write an appeal to the prosecutor's office
A unified application form has not been developed. There are no step-by-step instructions on how to write a statement to the prosecutor's office about non-payment of wages; it is drawn up according to the general rules of office work and the requirements set out in Art. 7 FZ-59.
Required details:
- name of the government agency;
- information about the applicant;
- mailing address;
- the essence of the appeal, what the violation of rights and laws consists of;
- signature and date.
There are three parts of the complaint: introductory, main (or descriptive) and final, operative.
IMPORTANT!
Anonymous applications are not considered by government agencies. The prosecutor's office accepts collective applications from several citizens on a general basis.
To make your complaint more convincing and help solve the problem, study court decisions on similar cases. The database of judicial practice in ConsultantPlus will help you find them (get free access to it by clicking on the link below). The database contains decisions of all Russian courts, and the search is as simple as in Yandex. Be sure to refer in the text of the appeal to those cases that the court decided “in your” favor.
Introductory part
This is a header located in the upper right corner of the sheet with factual data about the addressee and applicant, document:
- name of the prosecutor's office, last name, first name and patronymic of the prosecutor and his position (the second is optional);
- surname, name and patronymic of the author (patronymic is indicated if available);
- address for sending a response;
- telephone for communication;
- the title of the document in the center of the sheet.
Descriptive part
This part consists of a list of specific facts (their legal assessment is optional):
- name of the employer (it is recommended to indicate the address to speed up the review);
- employment data (date, position, salary);
- period of delay of wages;
- amount of debt;
- information about interactions with the employer regarding debt.
The information is provided accurately, in accordance with the available documents, the writing style is businesslike.
The operative part
This lists the requirements for the government body to carry out actions to supervise the rule of law: conducting an inspection, making representations within the scope of authority, bringing the perpetrators to justice. The following is a list of applications. Without a signature and date, the document will not be considered (since its execution does not comply with the law).
When can you file a complaint with the prosecutor's office about non-payment of wages?
You cannot file a complaint about non-payment with a government agency on the next day of delayed wages. In order for specialists to accept the application, it must be drawn up 2 weeks after the delay, no earlier than the 15th day from the date of violation of the worker’s rights.
It should also be taken into account that it is after this period of time that the employee has the right to stop carrying out professional activities in the company that is delaying wages. The main thing is to officially notify management about this action using a statement of suspension of work due to delayed wages.
Before contacting the prosecutor's office with a complaint about non-payment, it is recommended to try to resolve the problem directly with the employer.
The employee can contact him with a statement to the employer immediately - the next day after the delay. Only after the absence of a response from the employer and positive dynamics in resolving this issue should you contact the prosecutor’s office.
We also recommend reading the article: What to do if you are not paid your salary upon dismissal?
If wages are not paid upon dismissal
The grossest violation of labor legislation is the refusal of the head of an enterprise to pay arrears of wages in the event of dismissal of an employee. The employer is obliged to make the final payment to the resigning employee on the day of dismissal, immediately before the issuance of the documents specified by law. These include:
- employment history;
- certificate of average salary for three years, including the two preceding dismissal;
- personalized accounting documents (forms SZV-M, SZV-STAZH, ERSV);
- form No. DSV-Z;
- income certificate form No. 2-NDFL;
- pay slip.
If part of the salary is not paid at the time of dismissal, the applicant will not be able to provide copies of the above documents in the attachment. This should also be indicated in the complaint sent to the prosecutor's office.
What to do if the application does not produce results?
Unfortunately, an application to the prosecutor's office about non-payment of wages does not always give the desired result. This is possible in three cases:
- The employer is really not to blame, and he has all the legal grounds for withholding wages;
- The employer was forced to hand over wages, but he ignored the decision of the prosecutor's office;
- The employer was somehow able to hide the fact of the violation from the prosecutor’s office.
In the first case, all you have to do is try to understand the employer and wait for your money, not forgetting about compensation. As a last resort, you can simply refuse to work and expect payments at home. But in the second and third cases, you need to continue to fight for your civil rights. And the court will help you with this.
In order to go to court, you will need to file a statement of claim. Its form is almost exactly the same as a complaint to the prosecutor's office. It is worth noting only the following differences:
- The item “Department Head” will disappear from the header. Instead, you will need to indicate the defendant, namely the details of the company - the employer;
- In the information part it will be necessary to add the cost of the claim, which will consist of compensation, withheld wages and legal costs;
- In the final part, you will need to add a letter with a response from the prosecutor’s office to the list of documents. Don't forget to attach it to your claim.
After filing the claim, the trial itself will begin. Your main task will be to prove that your wages are being withheld illegally. Doing this on your own will be extremely difficult, and sometimes even impossible. In this regard, it is worth hiring a lawyer at the stage of preparing a claim.
Contact your employer
If you are faced with a problem with paying wages, then the first step in solving such a problem will be to contact the organization itself. It is quite possible that you will be able to resolve the issue of your salary with the organization yourself, and you will not need to contact government agencies.
However, if it was not possible to resolve the problem, then contacting the organization will be a weighty argument in the future case, and ignoring it will bring big problems to the employer. You should also make sure that you have a second copy of this document.
Complaint to the labor inspectorate. How to compose and submit it?
If it was not possible to resolve the situation peacefully, then it is worth involving the main public service responsible for compliance with the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, namely the Labor Inspectorate. In order to draw her attention to the violation, you will need to draw up and submit a complaint. Such an appeal is written in free form, but according to certain rules:
- It should not be anonymous;
- It should contain information about your employment contract;
- The timing and extent of the delay must be indicated.
You can submit a complaint in person, by submitting it to the labor inspection department, by mail or via the Internet. To submit a complaint online, go to the labor inspectorate website and fill out the form. In any case, an investigation will be carried out at your request, the results of which will be communicated to you in an official letter.
How to contact TI with a complaint about non-payment of wages
To ensure that your complaint is not rejected, you must adhere to the following procedure:
- collect evidence of violation of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (receipts, contracts, witness statements, etc.);
- draw up a complaint in two copies;
- submit the document to the labor inspectorate in any convenient way: through the official website, by mail or in person.
