Life hacks for remote document exchange with employees

Since the introduction of martial law and in connection with the performance of some employees work remotely, including from abroad, many employers need to use the remote exchange of documents with them.

At the same time, the current labor legislation provides for cases when fixing the fact that an employee has received a document, familiarized himself with it or the employer obtained consent from him is mandatory, for example, when:

– granting a leave;

– changing working conditions;

– layoffs, etc.

In such cases, it is important that the remote exchange of documents ensures that the facts that the law establishes as mandatory for the occurrence of the relevant consequences are properly recorded.

Therefore, the employer should, if possible, make every effort to ensure that, in the event of a dispute, remote document exchange is recognized as appropriate and equivalent to its usual paper counterpart.

In connection with the above, over the past three months, practitioners in the field of labor law have developed specific approaches and recommendations, the main of which can be roughly reduced to the following measures:

– appointment of a responsible employee of the enterprise for the implementation of remote document exchange;

– receipt of an employee’s application for a method of receiving him documents remotely;

– confirmation and fixation of the fact of sending / receiving the document and the will of the employee;

– involvement of witnesses in the process of remote document exchange.

The details of the implementation of these measures depend on the specifics of the work of each enterprise, the number of employees and specific situations of remote document exchange.

On the one hand, we understand that in practice it is not advisable to apply all these measures in relation to the entire volume of documents that the employer exchanges with the employee.

However, for cases where, for example, the legality of a dismissal or a change in wage conditions may depend on the availability of a properly recorded fact of receiving a certain document, we advise you not to neglect reinsurance measures and resort to all of the above methods.

After all, measures to organize remote document exchange will be able, in the event of a dispute with an employee, to confirm and protect the decisions made by the employer, as well as minimize the risks of claims, both from employees and from regulatory authorities.