Work history digitalisation — what it gives to employees and employers
There will be one anachronism fewer in Russians’ life from 1 January: electronic employment record books will replace paper books
The 81st anniversary of the introduction of employment history books in our country was on 20 December: their use will stop when hiring an employee from 1 January 2019, while those who already work will have an electronic version, so one can get the paper book in the HR department as a souvenir. Read in Realnoe Vremya’s report about the electronic version of work history, guarantees of workers’ labour rights and mistakes from which the introduction of electronic employment history books will protect employers.
Book as a memento
The employment history book is a legacy of the Soviet past: the pension was paid on the basis of a document that included all stages of a worker’s work history, promotions and penalties.
Losing one’s employment history book meant to be doomed for painful collection of documents proving one’s work history. Today pension is paid on the basis of data of insurance premiums paid by the employers to the Pension Fund, and this information is kept in the Russian Pension Fund in electronic form. Record, in fact, became not as work as insurance, while the paper employment history book is gradually turning to anachronism.
As Realnoe Vremya was said in the Tatarstan office of the Russian Pension Fund, the information about the work history of those who are employed for the first time will be stored in electronic form, without creating a paper employment history book from the next year. Those who have it can write their employer a letter, which will give foundation to have the paper book together with the electronic one. “If the employee doesn’t write such a letter (won’t have the time to) until 31 December 2020, the employers will keep using the paper book,” Realnoe Vremya was assured in the press service of the office.
What’s instead?
The press service of the republican Ministry of Labour and Social Protection corrected Realnoe Vremya’s correspondent: the term “electronic employment history book” is rather colloquial than official. Officially, the employer sends information electronically, while the Russian Pension Fund accumulates information about work history.
At the same time, the RPF will now receive almost all the list of data that the paper employment history book has together with another standard report: the place and period of work, post, qualification, dates of employment and dismissal, reasons for dismissal.
Employers will be obliged to provide data about work history to the RPF monthly no later than on the 15th of every month in 2021 from 1 January 2021 — no later than a day after an employee is hired or dismissed. There is administrative responsibility for violating terms of providing information or providing not full or false information.
The employee has the right to get all this information in printed and certified but only for the period of work with this employer. Full certified information about employment history can be obtained in the Multifunctional Centre or offices of the RPF. While all information will be available on the account on the website of the RPF or on State Services of the Russian Federation (if the employee is registered in the United Identification and Authentication System).
But in answer to a loaded question about what guarantees that the electronic data won’t disappear or falsified one day after the databases is hacked, the press service of the RPF said: “The information system of the RPF was certified in accordance with current legislation in personal data protection”.
“This will allow us to avoid a lot of mistakes”
Mashtakova stressed another important moment: if the history book is lost, there are gaps in records in it, if the paper document is lost, the information will now be saved in electronic form. Then the correctness of pension payments for the employee is guaranteed.
“While this will allow the employer to avoid mistakes and different interpretation of records when information is sent to the RPF because the united electronic system won’t simply accept the incorrect record, while the manager’s any mistake will be plain to see.”
It will also be possible to correct wrong information: the employer and the RPF will agree on information, while the worker may not even be aware of this, moreover, he may not worry about it. The only thing the worker can care about is checking information about his employment on the account from time to time, and if there are complaints about its content, he should turn to the employer, the RPF or the Labour Inspectorate.