Publication date: 28.04.2024
Lawyer with ten years of experience. I am engaged in drawing up contracts, writing claims and lawsuits, accompanying enforcement proceedings, drafting constituent documents for legal entities, dealing with state registration of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. I also provide legal services in the areas of civil and commercial law.
Entry
Assignment of a pension requires proof of length of service. If there is a labour book, the necessary information is taken from it. However, there are situations when this document is lost or left behind during evacuation from the combat zone.
This publication describes how to confirm the length of service with other documents, without a labour book.
Section 1. What documents are used to confirm length of service
If the labour book is lost or there are no records of periods of work in it, the length of service is confirmed:
1. OK-5 certificate with information about the employee available in the register of insured persons;
2. Extracts or certificates issued by former employers;
3. Extracts from orders (on hiring, on transfer to another job, on dismissal, etc.);
4. personal accounts and information on the issue of wages;
5. certificates issued to the employee by the employer;
6. references from places of work;
7. written labour contracts and agreements (with a note "executed");
8. other documents with information on periods of employment.
If an employee does not have any of the documents from the above list, the length of service is confirmed by trade union membership cards. In this case, only the periods for which membership fees have been paid will be counted in the length of service. Payment of dues shall be confirmed by appropriate marks.
Section 2. Confirmation of seniority by witnesses
The loss of seniority documents by an employee and the inability to recover them may result in:
1. natural disasters;
2. accidents;
3. catastrophes;
4. other emergency situations (invasion, war, occupation).
Then the employee can confirm his length of service by the testimony of witnesses who worked together with him in the same job. There must be at least two such witnesses (more can be involved).
Witnesses may also be involved in cases where:
1. the employee does not have documents on length of service;
2. it is impossible to recover the documents because the enterprise (institution, organisation) where the employee worked has ceased to exist;
3. the documents of the enterprise, the existence of which has ceased, have not been transferred to the archives for storage or have not been preserved in the archives.
There are two conditions under which the testimony of other workers will help:
➢ they have documents confirming the fact of their employment at the
the same enterprise as the applicant;
➢ they worked in the enterprise at the same time as the applicant.
If the witnesses do not fulfil these conditions, their testimony will not be accepted.
Section 3. Confirmation of length of service by individual employees
Employees in certain categories have been granted the right to retire:
➢ on favourable terms;
➢ on the basis of length of service.
Their work record books may not contain information about their special length of service. Employees can confirm the existence of the required length of service and, accordingly, the right to a preferential pension by submitting clarifying certificates. These certificates are issued by the enterprises (institutions, organisations) where they worked.
Such certificates shall specify:
1. the period of work counted as special length of service;
2. the employee's profession/position;
3. the nature of the work performed;
4. reference to the item (section, subsection) of the list of professions and positions in which the specific period of work is included;
5. information on the primary documents drawn up during the performance of the work.
Clarifying certificates are provided solely on the basis of the documents specified in item No. 5 of the above list.
The certificates may also contain information on:
1. employment in the production of agricultural products (applies to employees of agricultural enterprises performing sowing and reclamation work on wheeled and caterpillar tractors);
2. fulfilment of the service standards established for female dairy farm workers and pig operators involved in agriculture;
3. employment of women who have worked a full season in tobacco cultivation and are involved in tobacco harvesting and post-harvest processing.
Section 4. Rules for execution of documents confirming length of service
There are certain requirements to the documents confirming the labour activity of an employee:
1. each document shall be signed by an official of the employer and certified by the employer's stamp;
2. information from the certificate of length of service must be supported by documents that allow to verify its accuracy;
3. confirmation of the period of work by witnesses is accepted if both testimonies confirm its duration (remember that there must be two witnesses);
4. the witness testimony is necessarily recorded (handwritten or typed on a computer);
5. the recorded testimony is signed by the witness with his/her full name and the date of signing;
6. the name, patronymic and surname recorded in the documents confirming the length of service must coincide with the full name of the person indicated in his/her passport or other document confirming his/her identity. Otherwise, the identity of the documents shall be established in a judicial procedure.
Section 5. Confirmation of length of service in a judicial procedure
There are common cases when state authorities do not recognise certain facts without a court decision. To solve such situations, the law gives employees the opportunity to confirm the length of service by applying to the court. For this purpose, the legislation includes a special category of cases – on the establishment of legally significant facts.
The court application provides information about:
1. what fact the applicant requires to establish;
2. the purpose of establishing the fact;
3. for what reasons it is impossible to obtain or restore documents confirming the fact;
4. confirmation of the occurrence (existence) of the fact.
Together with the application shall be submitted:
1. evidence confirming the stated circumstances;
2. a certificate of impossibility to restore the lost documents.
Having considered the application, the court makes a decision to establish a legally significant fact. This decision may be used as confirmation of the length of service of the employee during his/her labour activity.
Conclusion
It is quite realistic to confirm the length of service without a labour book. But before I recommend to consult a lawyer. The lawyer will analyse your documents and provide a legal conclusion with options for solving the problem.
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