SUP presented Guidelines “Inspection by the State Labour Service: Rights, Obligations and Rules of Conduct”

Last year business suffered an increased activity by State Labour Service inspectors. Inspections are still under way. To make sure that members are ready for the inspections, on 27 March SUP presented Guidelines “Inspection by the State Labour Service: Rights, Obligations and Rules of Conduct” developed by SUP Business Protection Committee.

Anastasia Gurska, Deputy Chairman of the Committee, spoke on the rights of enterprise’s director during an inspection, rules of communication with an inspector and adverse consequence prevention.
Speaker pointed out several most common grounds for an inspection:

1. Ratio of official employees, production outputs and profits
“If an enterprise with two official employees is engaged in large-scale production or active manufacturing of new products, it’s no surprise that regulatory authorities raise questions as to how such an enterprise can operate efficiently,” said Gurska.

2. Correlation of salaries and profits
“For instance, there is a number of people, who are main minimum salary. By contrast, enterprise has significant turnovers and profit. That is, specialists are paid minimum salary for qualified work. It is especially common for IT companies. It also poses inspection risks.”

What rights does an inspector has during an inspection?

1. To enter any premises of a visited enterprise, where hired employees work, on his/her own and during any hour of the day, for detecting unofficial labour relations, subject to requirements of labour legislation.
2. To ask, alone or in the presence of witnesses, director/employees of an enterprise, questions related to labour legislation and to receive written explanations on asked questions.
3. To record the inspection visit for detecting unofficial labour relations using audio, photo and video equipment.

What should a director and enterprise’s authorised persons keep in mind during inspection?

1. Directors or enterprise’s authorised person should always check inspector’s official ID and inspection assignment, which must contain a list of officials authorised to conduct the inspection. Unless a person, who arrived for conducting an inspection, is specified in an assignment, he/she may not be allowed to inspect.
2. Labour inspector is authorised to familiarise him-/herself only with documents containing information/data on matters within the inspection visit scope.
   “If an inspector demands documents, which are not related to inspection visit scope, such a demand must be declined, whereof a note must be made in observations.”
3. Entrepreneur should remember that any inspector’s question must concern labour legislation. One should answer briefly and with confidence.

The speaker also presented TOP-7 mistakes of business in labour legislation, including the most common one of specifying a freelancer, who provides services within non-labour relations, as a team member on company’s website.

Anastasia Gurska also spoke on specific aspects of HR documentation for avoiding adverse consequences. In particular, it is necessary to regularly conduct legal due diligence of such documentation agaist the availability of orders, employment agreements and employment record books containing employment records.