The letter of resignation by mail is correct. How to send a resignation letter to an employer by mail, including electronically? How to make an application

Anything can happen in life. It happens that both the team and the management of the native enterprise oppress a person so much that there is no strength for further communication with the mentioned elements of objective reality, given in painful sensations.

In such severe and advanced cases, dismissal by mail comes to the aid of the employee, although this term is not entirely accurate. Of course, the act of dismissal itself takes place in the usual bureaucratic format, and the organization receives a notification from the employee by mail, or rather, a letter of resignation of his own free will.

Advantages of the method

The advantages of this form of dismissal include the following points:

1. Unambiguity. An application delivered by the postal department cannot be rejected. The fact of delivery of the document will guarantee its acceptance.
2. No stress. There is no need to feel the pangs of anger, shame or embarrassment when submitting an application to the personnel department or directly into the hands of the boss.
3. The possibility of making an unpleasant surprise. The document can be sent by mail while on sick leave or on vacation.

Practice

Without going into a moral and ethical assessment of the situation, we will consider only the organizational aspects of dismissal. So, for an application to terminate an employment contract to be accepted, you must:

1. Don’t mess with deadlines.

According to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, an employee has the right to terminate an employment contract on his own initiative by notifying the employer in writing at least two weeks before the event.

The two-week warning period begins to count down - ATTENTION! - not from the date of sending the letter with the application, but the next day after the employer receives the letter.

Based on this, you should send a letter or telegram to the employer with the text:

“I ask you to dismiss me voluntarily after 14 days from the date of receipt of this application.” or
"I ask you to dismiss me at your own request as of November 20, 2014."(substitute the number - the estimated date of receipt by the employer of the letter/telegram + at least 14 calendar days.)

You can add the phrase: "Please send your work book to the address: ..."(hereinafter home or contact address).

2. Send with inventory and delivery notification.

The resignation letter must be sent to the employer by a valuable letter with an inventory - at the Russian Post office or any courier service.

You need to fill out two forms to inventory the attachment according to the form, which indicate: the name (or full name) and postal address of the addressee, the name, number of items and the amount of their valuation from the point of view of the sender.

Dismissal by mail is a procedure for terminating an employment contract, which is resorted to by an employee who is unable to submit an application in person. Perhaps he is on vacation or on sick leave. In this case, it is important to correctly determine the date of dismissal.

Application methods

According to Article 80 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, an employee who decides to quit must notify the employer in writing of his intention at least two weeks in advance. There are several ways to do this:

1. Take the relevant request personally to the manager or the HR department.
2. Send your resignation letter by mail to your employer. In this case, it must be sent to the organization by registered mail with notification. It is advisable that the applicant fill out an inventory of the attachment in order to avoid disagreements regarding the contents of the letter. The procedure for receiving, processing and delivering registered letters is determined by order of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation dated July 31, 2014 No. 234.
3. Send a telegram. In accordance with the order of the Ministry of Information and Communications of the Russian Federation dated September 11, 2007 No. 108, to compile it you will need:
   • passport or other document proving the identity of the sender and a sample of his signature;
   • application form, the content of which must fully correspond to the text of the telegram.
   The operator receiving the telegram puts the “Certified” mark on it, thereby confirming the correspondence of the text and the sender’s signature.
4. Write to an email address, be sure to confirm the letter with an electronic digital signature. In accordance with the content of Federal Law No. 63 dated 04/06/2011, an electronic document, properly executed, has the same legal force as its paper equivalent.

Sample application

The fact that an employee has the right to resign remotely is evidenced not only by the absence of a direct prohibition in labor legislation, but also by the content of the letter of Rostrud dated 09/05/2006 No. 1551-6 and judicial practice: Appeal ruling of the Moscow City Court dated 10/18/2016 No. 33-41424/ 2016 and Rostov Regional Court dated July 1, 2014 No. 33-8091/2014).

When to fire

In the case of remote notification of resignation to the employer, what matters is the date the letter was received by the organization, and not the date it was sent, so when answering the employee’s question of how to send a resignation letter by mail, draw his attention to this circumstance. So, the two-week “working” begins on the next calendar day after the employer receives the application. If the letter was sent on December 1, but arrived at the company only on the 15th, then the countdown of the two-week period will begin on December 16, and the date of dismissal will be December 29.

Labor legislation also provides for situations where an employee has the right to resign at a time convenient for him. In particular, such cases include admission to a higher educational institution, retirement, detection of violations of the law by the employer, etc.

Let's consider specific cases of determining the date of dismissal.

What to do with the calculation and work book

If the employee was unable to attend in person and sent his resignation letter by mail, then it is possible that he will also not be able to come to collect his work. In this case, you must send a notification to his address, which should indicate:

• information about termination of the employment contract: reason and details;
• an offer to send a work book by mail;
• please provide written consent for shipment and postal address;
• information about the operating hours of the personnel service, if the dismissed employee still wants to pick up the work book in person.

Also, on the last day of work, the company must make a settlement with the employee, paying him:

• wages for days worked;
• compensation for unused vacation;
• bonuses, severance pay and other payments provided for by a collective or employment agreement, or other internal regulations of the company.

If you paid wages in cash, then in the above notice add a clause stating that the employee must come during working hours and receive the money from the cash register.

An employee has the right to resign at any time, including during illness, vacation, or absence from work for other reasons. In these cases, it is usually impossible to submit an application in person, and the employee sends it by letter or telegram. Let's consider whether the employer is obliged to accept such a statement, how to determine the date of dismissal and what rules apply if a withdrawal of a resignation letter is received by mail.

Is a statement sent by an employee by letter or telegram valid?

The Labor Code does not establish exactly how an employee must submit a letter of resignation to the employer ( part one art. 80 Labor Code of the Russian Federation). Rostrud indicated that the law does not prohibit an employee from submitting a written resignation of his own free will in any way, including by mail ( letter of Rostrud dated September 5, 2006 No. 1551–6). The courts agree with this ( appeal ruling of the Moscow City Court dated October 18, 2016 in case No. 33–41424/2016). Therefore, an application sent by mail has the same force as one that the employee took to the HR department in person.

Courts evaluate a resignation letter received in the form of a telegram differently. After all, it can be directed not by the employee himself, but by someone instead of him. At the same time, it is possible to send a telegram marked “certified”. To do this, the sender presents an identification document and signs on the telegram in the presence of an operator who certifies the signature (clause , Requirements approved by order of the Ministry of Information and Communications of Russia dated September 11, 2007 No. 108).

Sometimes courts indicate that it is impossible to establish the will of an employee from an uncertified telegram (appeal rulings of the Moscow City Court dated April 13, 2015 No. 4g/4–3742/15 , dated January 30, 2015 No. 33–2900/2015). However, if the employee made it clear in another way that he wants to quit, for example, by coming for a work book and a paycheck on the day of dismissal, the court may recognize an uncertified telegram as the proper form of application ().

Thus, the employer must accept the resignation letter sent by the employee by letter or telegram. If the employee’s signature in the telegram is not certified and there are doubts about whether he sent it, make sure that the employee has expressed his will to resign. For example, contact him by phone, ask him to duplicate the application in a letter or certified telegram. A telephone conversation with an employee can be recorded with his prior consent and this recording can be saved in case of a legal dispute.

Anna MALENKOVA, Head of HR Accounting, Gazprom Neft PJSC (St. Petersburg)

A resignation letter received by email can be accepted if it is certified by an electronic signature

Priority is given to the written form of resignation ( part one art. 80 Labor Code of the Russian Federation). The document must directly indicate the applicant, that is, contain his signature. In this case, an electronic message signed with an electronic signature is recognized as equivalent to a document with a handwritten signature, unless otherwise established by federal laws ( Art. 6 of the Law of April 6, 2011 No. 63-FZ). Therefore, an employee has the right to submit a letter of resignation by email if it is certified by an electronic signature. Otherwise, such a statement will not have legal force.

At the same time, there is an opinion that it is possible to use an electronic signature in document flow between an employee and an employer only when it is expressly provided for by law, for example, when working remotely ( Art. 312.1 Labor Code of the Russian Federation). Therefore, if possible, ask the employee to write a written resignation letter.

What to do if your resignation letter is received by mail

The notice period for dismissal begins to run from the next day after the employer receives the application. As a general rule, an employee must give notice of dismissal no later than two weeks in advance. (part one art. 80 Labor Code of the Russian Federation). So, if the application is received on February 1, 2017, the employee is dismissed on February 15, 2017.

When an employee submits an application by mail, it is difficult to maintain the two-week notice period. The employer may receive the document when there are less than two weeks left before the dismissal date indicated by the employee. For example, the application contained a request for dismissal on February 2, 2017, and the employer received it on February 1, 2017. In this case, the employer has two options:
– satisfy the employee’s request and terminate the employment contract on the date specified by him;
– disagree with the employee’s wishes and terminate the contract two weeks after receiving the application.

In the first case, early dismissal occurs before the expiration of the notice period ( part two art. 80 Labor Code of the Russian Federation). This is possible only by agreement of the parties. In judicial practice, the question of what to do in a situation where the employer does not agree to meet the employee’s needs has not been resolved. There are two points of view on this issue. First, if the employer does not agree to early dismissal, the employment contract is terminated after two weeks or another notice period established by law ( appeal ruling of the Novosibirsk Regional Court dated November 3, 2015 in case No. 33–9544/2015). Secondly, if the employer does not agree to early dismissal, it is impossible to terminate the contract after the expiration of the notice period, since the parties have not agreed on the date of dismissal ( appeal ruling of the Novgorod Regional Court dated June 26, 2013 in case No. 2-321-33-983).

The first position is more common in judicial practice. However, it is advisable not to ignore the second point of view, since it is still supported by individual judges. If possible, you should contact the employee and find out whether he agrees to dismissal after the expiration of the notice period established by law. However, if the employee is absent from work, there is usually no point in waiting until this period expires. Therefore, you can agree to dismiss the employee on the date specified by him, which will help avoid disputes.

In some cases, an employee has the right to resign without working. For example, when enrolling in an educational organization, retiring, moving to another area, etc. ( part three Art. 80 Labor Code of the Russian Federation, clause 1 Explanations approved by the resolution of July 9, 1980 State Committee for Labor of the USSR No. 198 And Secretariat of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions No. 12–21).

Sometimes an employer receives an application by mail after the employee’s specified dismissal date has already arrived. In judicial practice, there is an example where the court recognized the dismissal as legal on a past date. The employee submitted her resignation letter on November 2, 2012. The letter was received by the employer only on November 8. By order of November 9, 2012, the employment contract was terminated on November 2.

Subsequently, the employee appealed the dismissal, insisting that she should have been fired no earlier than November 22. But the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation agreed with the lower courts and considered it possible in such a situation to dismiss on November 2, 2012. The employee’s argument that the two-week warning period for dismissal began to run on November 9, the court rejected ( ruling of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated July 11, 2014 No. 78-KG14-12).

It is unknown how the courts will evaluate dismissal as past the date in each specific case. Therefore, we recommend that you agree on a new date of dismissal with the employee and ask him to rewrite the application ( appeal ruling of the Moscow City Court dated November 30, 2012 in case No. 11–26310).

The Labor Code does not specify in what form an employee must notify the employer of his decision to withdraw his resignation. That is, theoretically, an employee can refuse dismissal verbally. To avoid disputes, stipulate in the local act that the review should be issued in the form of a written statement.

Law against practice

What to do if an employee withdraws his resignation letter by mail

An employee has the right to withdraw a letter of resignation by sending a postal or telegraphic message. The employer is obliged to accept such feedback. In this case, dismissal is not formalized. An exception is the case when another employee was invited to a position in writing, who cannot be refused to conclude an employment contract ( Art. 80 Labor Code of the Russian Federation, ruling of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated May 31, 2013 No. 5-КГ13-43).

What matters is the date when the employer received the recall application. So, if it was received on February 15, and the planned date of dismissal is February 16, the court will consider that the employee properly notified the employer of his intention to continue working. In this case, dismissal is not formalized ( part four art. 80 Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

If the employer received the review the day after the dismissal or later, then, as a rule, it can be ignored. In one of the cases, the courts of first and second instance considered the actions of an employee who belatedly sent a withdrawal of his resignation letter as an abuse of right. The employee understood that the employer would not have time to receive the letter before the day of dismissal, but did not try to notify him in any other way ( appeal ruling of the Moscow City Court dated November 30, 2015 in case No. 33–44777/2015).

At the same time, in each specific case, the courts give their assessment of the actions of the parties. For example, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation took the side of an employee who withdrew her resignation letter on February 25, 2011, on the day of dismissal and after the end of the working day. But we must take into account that she was on sick leave. The telegram about the withdrawal of the resignation letter was received by the telecom operator at 5:20 p.m. (the employer’s working day ended at 5:15 p.m.). The telegram was received only on March 1, 2011. However, the court indicated that the employee who was absent from work had the right to withdraw the application until the end of the calendar day on February 25, 2011. The judicial panel also noted that the employer did not take any action to verify the woman’s intention quit (

According to current legislation, a resignation letter from an employee can be sent by mail to the employer. This procedure is provided for situations where the parties terminate the employment relationship due to a strong conflict, or when the employee cannot independently arrive to complete all the necessary papers. It is possible to resign by mail, but a strictly defined procedure must be followed so that the process of terminating the employment relationship does not violate legal norms.

Application form

As stated in the norms of the Labor Code, two main requirements are put forward for applications for dismissal from an employee. This:

• written form of the application (preferably by hand, but printed text on a computer is also acceptable);
• submission of the document at least 14 calendar days (including weekends and holidays) before the desired date of termination of the employment relationship.

As for the content of the document, the legislator does not propose specific wording. Instead of the application being accepted by the company’s management, you need to display a number of mandatory details:

• the name of the legal entity with the exact location address to whose name the application is sent;
• personal data of a company employee;
• name of the petition (application for dismissal);
• text (as short and clear as possible, without ambiguous phrases);
• personal signature and date of filling out the paper.

It must be remembered that, on a general basis, an employee will be dismissed only two weeks after the application is received by the administration of the enterprise. When a document is transferred personally through the office of the company, the recipient leaves a mark on the copy of the application with the date the application was sent to the employer.

Important! In cases where an application for dismissal is sent by mail, in the wording of the petition it is necessary to avoid indicating the specific day of termination of the agreement, since it is impossible to provide for the efficiency of the work of postal services. It must be stated that the request to terminate the contract is 15 days from the date of receipt of the paper.

Referral procedure

There are several ways to send an application by mail:

• in a regular envelope;
• by registered mail;
• valuable notice;
• by telegram;
• by email.

It is not advisable to send a resignation letter in an ordinary envelope. This is due to the fact that the sending of a regular envelope is not recorded anywhere, and it is impossible to prove that the employer received it. In addition, the contents of a regular envelope are known only to the sender, so the management of the enterprise, if they do not want to terminate the employment contract, can deny not only the fact that they received the document, but also that there was a statement in the envelope.

A registered letter is a more reliable option for transmitting your application to the company administration. Registered mail means that when the letter is sent, the sender will be given a receipt for payment for postal services. And upon receipt from the employer, they will require a signature on the paper receipt form. But, again, how to prove that inside the envelope there was precisely an appeal requesting termination of the contract? To do this, you need to pay for the “inventory preparation” function with the shipment. This option implies that the envelope is handed over to the postal employee open and the employee records what papers are in the letter. Thus, the employer will not be able to deny that it was the employee’s resignation letter that was sent to him.

To be sure that the letter has reached the addressee, send a valuable parcel, upon receipt of which the employer will mark the date of receipt of the documents. A report on the receipt of documents will be sent to the sender's address.

Telegram is one of the most common ways to send job applications. When composing a telegram, the sender presents his passport, thereby recording that the document is sent personally. Also, the text of the application is open, so the employer will not be able to deny the fact that the application was received.

The question often arises: is it possible to send documents by email? This possibility is not limited by law, but if legal action is necessary, it will be difficult for the employee to prove that it was the head of the enterprise who was familiar with the text of the petition and when this happened.

Legal consequences

After the employee has sent a letter of resignation to the management of the company, a mechanism is launched that precedes the termination of the employment relationship. At the same time, the termination of the contract occurs on a general basis, that is, based on what date the manager puts on the documents on receipt of the postal request, a two-week period will be counted.

The employee has the opportunity during this time until the end of 15 days to withdraw his application. This can be done either in person or by sending a postal telegram. But if the dismissal order has already been issued, the employee will not be returned to work.

Legal terms

Having received an application by mail from an employee with a request to terminate the employment contract, the employer must check with the employee whether the letter was actually sent to him personally. This can be done with a simple phone call. When the fact of personal submission of the application is confirmed, the dismissal procedure can begin.

According to the Labor Code, the procedure for terminating employment relations implies that after a period of two weeks, the employee must be issued all documents, as well as cash benefits paid in full. But how to calculate this very control day? It all depends on the date of receipt of the letter, which the employer will put on the receipt for receipt of the postal item. And legal deadlines can be divided into two groups:

• if a specific date is already indicated by the employee in the application;
• when the date of termination of the contract is not directly stated in the application.

When the petition does not specify a strict termination date, the employer must count 15 calendar days without taking into account the date of receipt of the letter. And only after the expiration of the specified period issue a dismissal order. Specifying the date in the document suggests the following procedure for calculating the date of dismissal:

• when there are more than two weeks between the specified day and the date of receipt of the letter, the date indicated by the employee should be adhered to, since before the expiration of the period measured by him, the person can withdraw his application;
• when there are less than two weeks between two dates, then the employee’s request must be granted, despite the two-week work requirements;
• if the day of receipt is later than the specified date, then the contract is terminated after a couple of days, and the basis for termination of the employment relationship will be the consent of the parties.

Actual termination

According to the norms of the Labor Code, on the day of termination of employment relations, the employer must issue an order to dismiss the person, as well as hand over his documents and the full amount of monetary compensation to the dismissed person. When dismissal occurs by mail, the procedure is somewhat different. So, the algorithm of actions of the head of the company involves the following steps:

• issuing a dismissal order in two copies, one of which is intended for the dismissed person;
• preparation of a work book and certificate of employment for an employee;
• sending an official notification to the dismissed person of the need to come to the institution to familiarize himself with the order and receive all documents;
• if the employee arrived on time, then hand him a work book and a copy of the order against his signature (if the person did not appear, but sent an application with a request to send all the papers by postal service, then a valuable letter with an inventory is prepared and handed over to the dismissed employee);
• in a copy of the order that remains at the enterprise, a note is made that the dismissed person did not arrive on time;
• transfer of cash benefits and payments to the employee’s bank account.

The most questions when terminating contracts, when the application is submitted by mail, arise with the identification of the sender of the application. In order to avoid lengthy legal disputes, the employer needs to make sure that the letter was sent by the specified employee, and that the employee wishes to terminate the employment relationship.