Personnel EDF: to which documents it is prohibited to apply it

LEGAL DIGEST, NEWS \ 13.03.2023

The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Russian Federation in its recent clarifications reminded in respect of which documents the personnel electronic document flow is not applied. 

In its Letter dated January 12, 2023, No. 14-6/OOG-97, the bodies of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Russian Federation inform that the use of electronic personnel document flow (EPDF) is prohibited during registration of:

• certificates of an industrial accidents;
• orders (directions) for dismissal of employees;
• documents confirming the passage of labour protection briefings, including personally signed by the employee.

These documents are required to be issued only in paper form.

The Ministry of Labour of the Russian Federation notes that the availability of such documents in paper form is important in the investigation of industrial accidents, and also allows to establish the rights of employees in labour disputes. The withdrawal of these documents from the EPDF is aimed at protecting the interests of employees from possible illegal and unilateral changes to an electronic document, including “retrospectively”.

Please be reminded that starting from 2021, the Labour Code of the Russian Federation has been supplemented with new provisions on personnel EDF. EPDF is the creation, signing, use and storage by an employer, an employee or a person applying for a job, of work-related documents issued in electronic form without duplication on paper.

Currently, almost all personnel documents can be processed through the EPDF. For more information about the composition of such documents, see the table below.

The transition to the EPDF is the company’s right, for the application of which it will be necessary to perform a number of actions:

1. To create a company structure and form a map of personnel processes.

This should be done to assess the current processes with a description of personnel scenarios (for example, the procedure for signing an employment contract, sending applications for vacation or changing passport data, and so on).

2. To develop internal regulatory documents for the implementation of EPDF.

The documents contain information:

• about the information systems with which such documents will be signed;
• about the list of documents that the company transfers into electronic format (with the exception of those that still need to be issued in paper form);
• about the composition of the employees with whom the EPDF is conducted;
• about the deadlines for notifying employees of the transition to the EPDF and the right to consent to electronic interaction;
• about the date of implementation of the EPDF;
• about the terms and frequency of signing electronic documents;
• about the procedure for conducting training on the application of EPDF and so on.

3. To adapt IT solutions to the new procedure of interaction and introduce all personnel scenarios into information systems and programs.
4. To develop user documentation for employee training.
5. To train and connect employees to the system if they receive written consent from them.

Information systems can be used for the exchange of electronic documents:

• (Information System) Unified Digital Platform “Work in Russia”;
• The employer’s Information System, if it allows to sign and store electronic documents, as well as record the fact of receiving electronic documents.

It is possible to sign electronic documents by means of an electronic signature. It can be: enhanced qualified digital signature (EQDS), enhanced unqualified digital signature (EUDS) and simple one (SES).

For employers, such a signature should be strictly enhanced qualified one. Employees can sign documents of any of the mentioned types of signatures, however, for the most important personnel documents, only EQDS or EUDS are applied (for example, contractual documents, supplementary agreements to the contract, orders on disciplinary sanctions, and so on).

The main advantages of EPDF:

• reduction of time and funds for the organization and maintenance of archives;
• reducing the cost of printing and sending documents;
• possibility to monitor the entire “life-cycle” of documents (approvals, amendments, etc.);
• reduction of time for routine operations with documents (searching, approvals, sending, etc.);
• increasing in the level of the confidentiality of information (access to certain documents is provided in accordance with the assigned user rights);
• following the regulations for working with documents according to the established processes.

Acsour started a project to switch to electronic document flow in 2018. Since the process is bilateral and involves informing and connecting clients, it took place gradually. Today, more than 80% of the company’s clients are connected to the EDF system.

Also, Acsour specialists have implemented a procedure for personnel document flow with their own employees and continue to make improvements on a number of procedures so far.

In the matters of transition to electronic document flow in your company, please contact Acsour experts.