The lawyer spoke about the employee's right to disclose his income

An employee has the right to independently manage information about the amount of his salary, and the employer cannot prohibit him from sharing this information. Miroslava Brizitskaya, a lawyer at the Sokolov, Trusov and Partners Law Office in Moscow, told Izvestia about this on February 20.

According to her, according to Article 135 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, wages are set by an employment contract. At the same time, in accordance with article 3 of the law "On Personal Data", information about the salary of a particular employee refers to his personal data.

"The owner of this information is the employee himself, so he has the right to dispose of them at his discretion," Brizitskaya explained.

The lawyer noted that Rostrud, in a letter dated May 24, 2022, indicated that an employer does not have the right to prohibit an employee from disclosing their own salary, and such conditions in the employment contract are null and void and cannot be applied. Therefore, you cannot be held accountable for disclosing your salary.

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A different legal assessment is applied in the case of disclosure of information about the income of a colleague. Such information refers to the personal data of another employee, and Article 88 of the Labor Code prohibits their transfer to third parties without written consent. If the organization's local acts prohibit the dissemination of such data and the employee is familiar with them under signature, disciplinary liability may follow for violation in accordance with Article 192 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation — from remark to dismissal.

According to the expert, special attention should be paid to employees who become aware of salary information due to their job responsibilities — accountants, HR specialists, managers. In addition to disciplinary measures, in some cases administrative liability is possible under Article 13.11 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, as well as civil consequences in the form of compensation for moral damage at the victim's claim.

Separately, Brizitskaya stressed that the remuneration structure — the bonus system, coefficients and bonus calculation methodology — is not personal data, but refers to the internal documentation of the employer. If a commercial or other legally protected secret regime is introduced, disclosure of such information may also result in disciplinary measures, including dismissal.

"It is important to distinguish between the size of an individual salary and the structure of the wage system have different legal regimes," the lawyer concluded.

On the same day, Irina Shestyakova, a professor at the K.N. Gusov Department of Labor Law and Social Security Law at the O.E. Kutafin Moscow State Law University, said if an employee was fired for disclosing salary information, the court would reinstate him at work, and the employer would be held administratively liable. According to the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, the fine for officials and entrepreneurs in this case ranges from 1 thousand to 5 thousand rubles, for legal entities — from 30 thousand to 50 thousand rubles.

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