the financial responsibility of the employee comes for the damage caused to the employer as a result of his culpable unlawful behavior (actions or omissions). Thus, any employee can be held liable if he unlawfully and guiltily caused damage to the employer's property.
Illegality in relation to an employment relationship means that material damage has occurred as a result of an employee's failure to perform or improper performance of his duties, which are assigned to the employee by legislation, an employment contract, or local regulations in force with the employer. The financial liability of an employee is excluded in cases of damage due to force majeure, normal economic risk, extreme necessity or necessary defense, or failure by the employer to fulfill the obligation to ensure proper conditions for the storage of property entrusted to the employee (art. 239 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).
In addition, in order to talk about the occurrence of material liability for damage caused, a causal relationship must be established between the employee's action and the resulting material damage.
Thus, the financial responsibility of an employee occurs only if the following conditions are met simultaneously::
·illegal behavior (actions or omissions) of an employee
· the employee's guilt in committing an illegal act (inaction)
·the causal relationship between the unlawful action of the employee and the material damage;
· the absence of circumstances that exclude the financial responsibility of the employee.
The employee is obliged to compensate the employer for the direct actual damage caused to him. Lost income (lost profits) cannot be recovered from the employee. Direct actual damage is understood to mean a real decrease in the employer's available property or a deterioration in the condition of the specified property (including the property of third parties held by the employer if the employer is responsible for the safety of this property), as well as the need for the employer to make costs or excessive payments for the acquisition, restoration of property or compensation for damage caused by the employee to third parties persons (art. 238 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).
At the same time, each of the parties to the employment contract is obliged to prove the amount of damage caused to it. Basically, disputes occur over the amount of compensation for damage caused by an employee.
The amount of damage caused to an employer in the event of loss and damage to property is determined by actual losses calculated based on market prices in force in the area on the day of the damage, but not lower than the value of the property according to accounting data, taking into account the degree of depreciation of this property (art. 246 of the Labor Code).
The recovery of damages from the guilty employee of the amount of damage caused is carried out by order (order) of the head. An order to recover damages from an employee must be issued no later than one month from the date of the final determination of the amount of damage caused by the employee. Otherwise, the damage will have to be recovered through the court (art.248 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).
The employer must require the employee to provide a written explanation to determine the cause of the damage. And if the employee refuses to provide an explanation, the employer draws up an appropriate act of refusal.
For example, an employer conducts an inventory after the dismissal of a financially responsible employee, which makes it impossible to bring to financial responsibility a former employee who made a shortage (Definition of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 05/07/2018 №66-KG18-6).
The amount of material damage caused, which is recovered from the employee, directly depends on what kind of responsibility is provided for him: full or limited.