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Publication date: 30.04.2024
active and purposeful military lawyer with more than 4 years of experience
A case for personnel. Signing documents on the weekend: how to arrange such work for the director
SITUATION
The director of the enterprise has a five-day schedule and works from Monday to Friday. On Saturday or Sunday, he signs documents electronically ("On time", electronic document processing). The signature cannot be transferred to a weekday, documents must be certified by the fact of receiving the goods. If it is an electronic signature, is it a violation not to schedule the director for 1 hour on a day off, not to issue a work order on a day off?
DECISION
A signature is a requisite of a document that indicates a person's responsibility for its content and gives the document legal force. This definition of the concept of "signature" is given by the explanatory dictionary.
Signing documents is an integral part of the administrative functions of enterprise managers and is part of their job duties.
Regarding the electronic signature
In accordance with paragraph 12 of the first part of Article 1 of the Law of Ukraine dated October 5, 2017 No. 2155-VIII "On electronic trust services" (hereinafter - Law No. 2155), an electronic signature is electronic data that is added by the signatory to other electronic data or logically from are bound by them and used by him as a signature.
Clause 13 of the first part of Article 1 of Law No. 2155 defines that electronic data is any information in electronic form.
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Therefore, an electronic signature is any information in electronic form that is added by the signer to other information or is logically connected with it and is used by him as a signature.Clause 23 of the first part of Article 1 of Law No. 2155 defines that a qualified electronic signature is an improved electronic signature that is created using a means of a qualified electronic signature and is based on a qualified public key certificate.
In accordance with the fourth part of Article 18 of Law No. 2155, a qualified electronic signature has the same legal force as a handwritten signature and is presumed to correspond to a handwritten signature.
Therefore, since a qualified electronic signature has the same legal force as a handwritten one, it should be considered that the electronic signature of documents is also part of the duties of the head of the enterprise (in our case, the director of the enterprise), as well as the signature of documents by hand.
Regarding the signing of documents on a day off Official duties are performed by employees within their working hours (unless otherwise stipulated by the terms of the employment contract). Working time is the time during which the employee, in accordance with the rules of the internal labor procedure and the terms of the employment contract, performs his work duties.
Article 59 of the Labor Code of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as the Labor Code) specifies that the normal length of working hours of employees cannot exceed 40 hours per week. At the same time, when concluding a collective agreement, enterprises can set a lower norm for the duration of working hours.
Please note that the first part of Article 6 of the Law of Ukraine dated March 15, 2022 No. 2136-IX "On the organization of labor relations under martial law" (hereinafter - Law No. 2136) determines that the normal length of working hours during the period of martial law may be increased to 60 hours per week for employees employed at critical infrastructure facilities (in the defense sector, the sphere of ensuring the livelihood of the population, etc.).
The description of the situation states that the director has a fixed work schedule (a five-day work week from Monday to Friday), within which he must perform his official duties, including signing documents.
It is worth noting that the legislation provides for the possibility of performing work outside working hours, in particular on a day off.
In general, according to Article 71 of the Labor Code, working on weekends is prohibited.Involvement of certain categories of employees to work on a day off is allowed in exceptional cases, only with the permission of the elected body of the primary trade union organization (trade union representative) of the enterprise for:
• averting or eliminating the consequences of natural disasters, epidemics, epizootics, industrial accidents and immediate elimination of their consequences;
• averting accidents that endanger or may endanger life or normal living conditions of people, death or damage to property;
• execution of urgent, unforeseen works, on the immediate execution of which the normal operation of the enterprise as a whole or its individual units depends in the future;
• to carry out urgent loading and unloading operations in order to prevent or eliminate idleness of rolling stock or accumulation of goods at the points of departure and destination.
Involving employees to work on weekends is carried out by written order (order) of the employer. At the same time, work on a day off is compensated by the agreement of the parties with another rest day or with double wages for work on this day (Article 72 of the Labor Code).
However, during the period of martial law, the provisions of Article 71 of the Criminal Code do not apply in accordance with the sixth part of Article 6 of Law No. 2136. Therefore,
• employees can be brought to work on a day off without the consent of the trade union organization (trade union representative);
• employees can be brought to work on a day off without exceptional cases provided for in Article 71 of the Labor Code;
• work on a day off shall be compensated to the employee by another day of rest or by payment for work on this day in a double amount (by agreement of the parties) (Article 72 of the Labor Code).
In the described situation, it is stated that the director is engaged in signing documents, that is, performs his official duties, on his day off. During the period of martial law, it is possible to be involved in work on a day off without the presence of exceptional cases, which were considered above. However, such engagement of him to work on a day off must be issued by an order, properly recorded in the time sheet and compensated in accordance with the law.
At the same time, it is clear from the description of the situation that the need to sign documents and involve the director to work on a day off is constant and arises every week. At the same time, the signing of documents is carried out on Saturday or Sunday.
If it is possible for the enterprise to settle the issue of signing documents only on Saturday, then it will be legitimate to resolve such a situation by changing the working hours of the director from a five-day to a six-day working week with one day off, due to the fact that the working hours under A seven-day working week is impractical for him due to the need to sign documents on Saturday. In this case, Sunday should be defined as a day off, since, according to Article 67 of the Labor Code, this day is a general day off, and the enterprise, as we can see from the description, does not belong to the enterprises whose work cannot be interrupted or stopped on a general day off according to Articles 68 and 69 of the Labor Code.Please note that, according to Article 52 of the Labor Code, with a six-day work week, the duration of daily work cannot exceed 7 hours at a weekly rate of 40 hours, 6 hours at a weekly rate of 36 hours, and 4 hours at a weekly rate of 24 hours. And on the eve of weekends, the duration of work in a six-day working week cannot exceed 5 hours (Article 53 of the Labor Code).
At the same time, on the eve of holidays and non-working days, the working hours of employees, except for employees who have a reduced working time according to the law, are reduced by one hour for both a five-day and a six-day work week (Article 53 of the Labor Code). During the period of martial law, this norm does not apply in accordance with part six of Article 6 of Law No. 2136.
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According to Article 52 of the Labor Code, a five- or six-day working week is established by the employer together with the elected body of the primary trade union organization (trade union representative) taking into account the specifics of the work, the opinion of the labor team and in agreement with the local council.
However, during the period of martial law, in accordance with the third part of Article 6 of Law No. 2136, a five-day or six-day work week is established by the employer independently.
