How to file an application to the prosecutor's office about non-payment of wages, we protect the rights of the employee

Wage debts are a very bad sign. The state is developing new mechanisms to improve the situation.

Currently, a very effective tool for protecting the rights of workers is a statement to the prosecutor's office about non-payment of wages.

For most citizens, the money they receive as payment for their work is almost the only source of livelihood. Therefore, for refusal to pay wages or its delay, various punishments are provided.

Wages are not paid at all or are delayed: what to do?

Paying employees wages in full and on time is one of the main responsibilities of the employer.
Delays in wages are considered a serious violation of labor laws, which may result in penalties including criminal liability. Types of employer liability for delayed wages:

The legislation provides for serious liability for the employer in such cases. However, it is more important for the employee to get the money he earned as quickly as possible, and not just to punish the unscrupulous employer. Therefore, he needs to take the initiative into his own hands.

Where to turn if your salary is not paid? There are several legally permitted mechanisms for influencing the employer in order to resolve the issue of unpaid wages. Some of them allow workers to achieve the desired result with the help of pre-trial activities. If the efforts made are not crowned with success, working citizens are left with judicial procedures for collecting wage debts. In addition, the law does not prohibit going to court without going through pre-trial mechanisms.

Find out what to do if your salary is delayed for a long time in ConsultantPlus. Study the material by getting trial access to the K+ system for free.

How to write a complaint correctly?

To write a statement in case of non-payment of wages by the employer, you should use a free design structure or a sample developed by the prosecutor's office. The document must include several sections.

The first of these is the hat. It reflects the following information:

• initials and class rank of the prosecutor;
• Full name of the applicant;
• name of the paper.

It is important to note that the application of this sample cannot be anonymous. Information about the applicant is mandatory.

The next part of the statement is descriptive. It includes:

• information about the employer - address and name of the company;
• the reason why there was a need to contact the prosecutor's office. This reflects the period of delay in wages, its total amount - in words and figures, the amount of compensation for each day of delay;
• a list of measures that were taken before contacting the prosecutor's office.

If wages are delayed for more than 15 days, and the employee has suspended the performance of his official duties, having previously notified the employer, the fact of this action should also be reflected in the application.

Applications for absence from work due to delayed wages can be found here.

In the operative part of the document, it is important to indicate the requirements that the applicant wishes to satisfy. These may be:

• criminal proceedings;
• transfer of the case to court;
• request for resolution of a controversial situation.

At the end of the application for delay, you need to list the papers that are attached to the document. Then the signature of the applicant and the date of filing the complaint are put.

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How to submit a collective appeal?

The rights of several employees regarding payment of wages may be violated at the same time. To resolve issues of this nature, working citizens can file a collective complaint. It acquires this status if it is registered by 2 or more people.

In general terms, a collective statement has the structure of an ordinary one. Changes are made only to some parts of the complaint.

In the main section of the paper you should indicate information about each employee whose wages are being delayed.

In the operative part, it is important to reflect the request to combine the cases of all applicants into one.

Terms of consideration

The time during which the application for non-payment must be considered by the prosecutor is established by law. In accordance with them, a government agency is obliged to register a document within a 3-day period starting from the moment it is submitted.

If specialists need to conduct an appropriate inspection to resolve the issue, the application must be reviewed within 30 days. If there is no need to carry out events of this type, this period is reduced to 15 days.

We resolve the issue of salary debt directly with the employer

Employees often encounter a situation where an employer does not pay wages . The question immediately arises: where to go if you don’t get paid?

Before complaining to regulatory or law enforcement agencies, contact your employer directly. Before your visit, prepare - fill out a written complaint in two copies and give one of them to the head of the enterprise. In your complaint, state the essence of the problem (what amount and since when you have not been paid), and also indicate your details (full name, position, department) and a request for payment of the debt. You will have a second copy of the document in your hands, which needs to be registered with the secretary. This is your safety net - a registered claim will confirm the fact of contacting the employer if you have to go to court with the issue of unpaid wages.

Most likely, you will be denied registration of a claim. In this case, feel free to send it by registered or certified mail with a description of the attachment. The fact that the claim has been sent to the employer will be confirmed by a postal receipt and a postal worker’s mark on the enclosure inventory.

It is possible that the employer, after your visit and receipt of the claim, will pay off the salary debt. But often attempts to resolve the issue directly with the employer are unsuccessful.

What to do if wages are not paid? You can try another legal way.

Submission of documents

There are several ways to submit your request:

• Through the reception desk with writing the incoming request number;
• In person, at a reception with the prosecutor;
• By mail, by registered letter with a list of attached documents;
• Online through the portal of the Prosecutor General's Office.

Before submitting an application to the prosecutor's office, you must once again check the correctness of its spelling and the presence of all necessary additional documents.

Appeals to law enforcement agencies must be of a claim nature. That is, before writing a complaint to the prosecutor’s office against an employer regarding wages, an employee is obliged to draw up and submit a complaint to the management of the company where he works. Only after receiving a response (or refusal to consider the claim), you can write a complaint to the supervisory authorities and the prosecutor's office.

If violations of labor rights are widespread, you can file a collective complaint (Article 33 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation).

Collective appeal

A collective statement is drawn up according to the same algorithm as a single one. The only difference will be that the header of the appeal indicates not just one applicant, but all the persons from whom the complaint is received, or the data of the initiative group of persons is indicated. Another option is to write in the header of the application the information that the applicants are the staff of the enterprise, and register all applicants on a separate sheet of paper, which should be included in the list of additional documents.

At the end of the document, you will also need to put the signatures of all employees from whom the application is received.

What should an employee do if wages are not paid: an alternative method

Are you not getting paid? Try to resort to another procedure for influencing the employer provided for by law - do not go to work. According to Art. 142 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, if wages are delayed for more than 15 days, the employee has the right to suspend work. Perhaps such forced inaction of the workforce will prompt the employer to quickly raise funds, and further trips to the authorities will not be necessary.

The mechanism for legal suspension of work is prescribed in Art. 142 Labor Code of the Russian Federation. The employee is required to do only one thing - notify the employer in writing. See below for what such a notification might look like:

From the date of filing such a notice, the employee may not appear at his workplace until the employer notifies him in writing of his readiness to repay the salary debt. During forced absence, the employee retains his average earnings.

It is necessary to take into account this nuance - the law does not allow certain categories of workers to suspend work if wages are not paid. And in certain cases, suspension of work is not permissible at all:

If, according to the law, you do not have the right to suspend work due to delayed wages or this measure does not have the desired effect on the employer, try another out-of-court method of collecting wage debt.

Appeal to the labor dispute commission is a legal way to influence the employer

If wages are not paid or are delayed, the employee may try to influence the employer through the labor dispute commission (LCC). But only if such a commission is created in the organization.

KTS is a special structure at the enterprise:

• created to resolve individual labor disputes (including regarding non-payment or delay of wages);
• formed from representatives of the workforce and representatives of the employer;
• performing its functions and vested with powers in accordance with Art. 384-390 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

What is the advantage of contacting CTS? Isn't it better to immediately contact the prosecutor's office or court? The main advantage of resolving a dispute in the CCC is the relative speed of achieving a result (compared to the time frame for judicial collection of wages) and less red tape with documents. The commission must consider the employee’s appeal within 10 days. And after making a decision, the employer must comply with it within 3 days after the 10 days provided for appeal have expired.

The certificate issued by the CTS is forcibly enforced by a bailiff (Article 389 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). Judicial procedures take considerable time and take a lot of effort - you need to comply with certain regulations, collect documents in the proper form, etc. And the CTS is located directly at the enterprise and has all the necessary information without additional confirmations or requests.

Unfortunately, CTS is an extremely rare phenomenon in our modern life. They have been preserved only at large enterprises, where regulations for resolving labor disputes have been established and have been in effect since Soviet times, there is a strong trade union and an active workforce. Most medium and small companies do not create CTS.

If your company does not have a CTS or is inactive, try influencing the employer through the labor inspectorate.

Complaint about non-payment of wages to the labor inspectorate

A complaint about unpaid wages filed by an employee with the State Labor Inspectorate may also force the employer to pay back wages to employees. A complaint may provoke an unscheduled inspection of the organization with the subsequent issuance of an order to repay salary debts and punishment of the manager. A complete list of consequences of citizens applying to the labor inspectorate for restoration of violated rights (including late payment of wages) is presented in the figure:

The application (complaint) is drawn up in free form. Labor inspectorates may also use unified forms for citizens’ appeals. They can be obtained by visiting the inspection office in person.

Modern technologies make it possible to file a complaint through the website of the regional labor inspectorate.

Are wages delayed or not paid? Contact the prosecutor's office

Another authority where you can turn if your salary is delayed is the prosecutor’s office, a body that oversees compliance with legislation, rights and freedoms of citizens on behalf of the state.

Here you will also need to fill out an application. Its composition and form will be advised by the prosecutor on duty, to whom you will be referred when visiting the prosecutor's office. The application is written addressed to the chief prosecutor and must contain the following information:

The content of the application may look like this:

The prosecutor's office independently verifies the facts stated in the application or forwards it to the labor inspectorate.

Obtaining a court order is one of the ways to collect wages

If an employee individually fails to resolve issues of wage arrears, you can use another relatively quick way to collect funds - apply to a judge for a court order (paragraph 7 of Article 122 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation).

A court order is a document issued by a judge without holding a court hearing and summoning the employee (claimant) and employer (debtor) to court for trial. The issuance of a court order by a judge to collect wages also allows the employee to solve his problems faster (the order is issued within 5 days after receiving the application) than during the usual judicial procedure for recovering earnings from the employer.

To obtain a court order, the employee must submit an application and supporting documents to the judge. See below for the required details of such an application:

The following documents must be attached to the application:

The judge issues a court order after carefully examining the application and attached documents.

This method of collecting wages has one nuance - it can be used only on the condition that (clause 1 of Article 121 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation):

• the amount of the collected salary does not exceed 500,000 rubles;
• the salary was accrued but not paid, and the employee does not dispute its amount.

If the employee does not agree with the amount of the accrued salary and the salary debt has exceeded the half-million dollar limit, in order to collect it, he will have to go to court with a statement of claim, following the standard judicial procedure.

Rules for filing a claim

There are no legally established rules or requirements for the content of a claim. Therefore, such documents are drawn up based on the general rules of legal technology.

The document includes:

• the title part, which indicates to whom the claim is addressed and from whom, the name of the document, date and place of preparation;
• a descriptive part that describes the history of the occurrence of wage arrears;
• the motivational part, which contains references to the norms of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, for example, to the provisions of Art. 136 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, collective agreements or employment contracts with employees, which oblige the administration of the organization to pay wages on time;
• the operative part, which indicates the demands of employees to repay the debt, indicates the deadlines and the actions that employees are ready to take in the event of non-fulfillment of their demands.

Deadlines and costs: how not to be late with collection and whether you need to pay a state fee

An employee should remember that he can go to court regarding unpaid wages within 1 year from the date of the established deadline for payment of wages (Article 392 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). What are these terms, see the figure:

These are general terms. There are also special deadlines for payment of wages established by law. For example, a resigning employee must pay all amounts due to him (including wages) on the day of dismissal (Article 140 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). And wages not received by the day of the employee’s death must be issued to his family members no later than a week, which is counted from the moment the relevant documents are submitted to the employer (Article 141 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

Going to court is usually associated with additional costs of paying state fees. But when resolving issues regarding unpaid or delayed wages, you will not have to spend money on paying fees. This is expressly provided for in Art. 393 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

Case Study

As a rule, when contacting law enforcement agencies, department employees understand the situation, and the employer receives a well-deserved punishment. However, most violations remain unpunished, due to the fact that enterprise employees are simply afraid to file complaints. Let's look at an example that clearly shows that troubles from an employer can be avoided.

At the Faton enterprise, employees did not receive wages for 3 months. The workers did not contact the regulatory authorities because they were afraid of dismissal. However, one employee nevertheless decided to write a statement to the prosecutor's office. He, like everyone else, was afraid of being fired, but the prosecutor’s office explained to him that if a note is made in the application that the applicant is against the disclosure of information about him, then during the inspection the employer will not find out who made the complaint .

Clause 1.6 of the instructions on the procedure for receiving applications, which was approved by Order No. 45 of the Prosecutor General’s Office dated January 30, 2013, states that if the applicant does not want his data to be disclosed, employees must hide information during the proceedings and ensure the anonymity of the applicant.

The matter ended well. After employees of the prosecutor's office came to the enterprise with an inspection, the employer, fearing liability, paid wages to all employees for the entire period of delay.

The employer does not pay wages: how to resolve this issue in court

Are your salaries being delayed? Do you have unsettled amounts of salary accruals and (or) your employer refuses to transfer you the payments and compensations required by law? We'll have to go to court.

Going to court is usually the most effective procedure. It begins with collecting documents and filing a statement of claim. The procedure for its preparation is subject to the general requirements for documents sent to the court (Article 131 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation).

Along with paying off the salary debt, you can ask the court to recover compensation from the employer for the delay. The application is accompanied by documents confirming the employment relationship with the debtor-employer (copies of the work record book and employment contract), the amount of debt, as well as the fact of non-payment (for example, a copy of the pay slip).

What other documents will be needed?

To begin a prosecutorial investigation, you will need documents confirming violations committed by the employer in relation to the employee. The presence of an evidence base will speed up the start of the audit. Documents that should be attached to the application:

• a copy of the employment contract;
• a copy of an extract from the work book;
• payslips;
• order on hiring or dismissal;
• bank account statement (salary card);
• a copy of the wage regulations, etc.

IMPORTANT!

If the employee does not have enough documents confirming violations, the government agency will independently request them from the employer.

ConsultantPlus experts discussed how to file a collective complaint about non-payment of wages after illegal dismissal. Use these instructions for free.

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Results

The question of where to turn if wages are not paid has long been resolved by law.
Employees are given the right to independently influence the employer through negotiations or suspension of work. A labor dispute commission will help resolve the issue of delayed wages if it exists at the enterprise and works effectively. Appealing to supervisory or judicial authorities will speed up the repayment of wage arrears. You can find more complete information on the topic in ConsultantPlus. Free trial access to the system for 2 days.

We are writing a statement

The text of the appeal can be compiled in free form

however, it must contain all the necessary information that may be useful for an impartial assessment of the employer’s actions and will assist in making a decision.

• Name of the hiring company (full) and address of its location;
• Work experience and position held by the author of the appeal;
• How many days is the delay in wages, from the first day of delay and according to the date of drawing up the application;
• Information about the steps taken to independently resolve the issue and determine the reasons for the delay, as well as the results of such actions;
• Providing information on monthly payments and total debt for the past period;
• If the performance of official duties was terminated, then the exact date should be indicated.

1. Applicant requirements:

• Elimination by the employer of all identified violations;
• Bringing to administrative liability;
• Criminal proceedings;
• Filing a claim.

Such an appeal can be submitted either individually or as a group. Any documents must be attached to the application.

, confirming work in this organization. For example, a duplicate of an employment contract and book, an order for enrollment, transfer to another position or to another unit.

Rice. 4 Sample application to the prosecutor's office for non-payment of wages

In addition to the main forms of influence on the employer, you need to talk about others.