The expert spoke about the specifics of annual bonus payment

The payment of an annual bonus or, as it is also known, the 13th salary has its own peculiarities which must be taken into account. Alexander Yuzhalin, head of legal practice at SuperJob, told Izvestia on September 20 who can count on these funds from the employer and how they are issued.

According to him, everything depends on what sphere the employer belongs to: budgetary or commercial.

"If the organization is budgetary, the issue with the payment of all kinds of bonuses, including annual bonuses, is determined by separate regulations. Therefore, to answer the question about bonuses, it is necessary to refer to the regulations in the relevant sphere. If the bonus is provided by law, of course, it must be paid in the prescribed amount," he said.

Speaking about the commercial sphere, he specified that the labor legislation does not define a bonus as a guaranteed part of wages. The law allows the employer to independently establish a system of remuneration in the organization. In particular, to determine independently what bonuses to pay, for what successes and in what amount. Therefore, in this case much depends on the financial capabilities of the employer. Bosses determine their wage system in the internal documents of the organization - local normative acts. Or the condition of paying the 13th salary can be defined in the labor or collective bargaining agreement.

"From this we can conclude: if the labor contract or local act does not provide for the payment of an annual bonus, the employer has the right not to pay it and it will not be a violation. However, if the bonus is provided for, it is necessary to determine under what conditions and in what amount it is paid. To do this, read the terms of your labor contract and the terms of local acts that provide for this bonus," Yuzhalin added.

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The expert explained that in a commercial organization the size of the bonus must be determined either by the terms of the employment contract or by the terms of local regulations. The law establishes neither minimum nor maximum bonus amounts - everything is at the discretion of the employer. As a rule, the amount of annual bonus is equal to a salary or several salaries. The employer may also set a fixed amount of such a bonus, which will not depend on the salary.

The time of payment is also determined by the employment contract or local act. The bonus can be paid on New Year's Eve, for example, together with the salary for December.

"At the same time, many employers try not to hurry with the payment of the annual bonus. If the annual bonus depends on a number of indicators that the employee had to fulfill, the employer will need to summarize the results of work for the year and only then decide on the payment of the annual bonus. The summarization can take some time, so sometimes the annual bonus is paid in February or even later. Specify the specific terms of payment in the terms of the labor contract or in local acts of the company, "- concluded Yuzhalin.

Earlier, on October 29, it was reported that among employed Russians 37% of respondents positively perceive overtime, if the employer pays extra for them. And only 11% of employees are willing to perform overtime tasks without compensation. This is evidenced by a survey conducted by the analytical center "Consol.Pro".