Employment or civil law relations? How to avoid substitution.

Along with citizens' appeals regarding employers' violations of salary payment deadlines, the Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office frequently receives appeals concerning violations of legislation when concluding civil law contracts.

It is no secret that when entering into contractual relations, each party pursues, first and foremost, its own goals.

Thus, a customer is interested in an executor whose expenses will be minimal, while each executor, on the contrary, is initially "set" to earn as much as possible for their services.

Partly due to such a diametrically opposed interest of executors and customers, in practice, the requirements of civil legislation are ignored by the latter, resulting in citizens-executors finding themselves in the role of "victims" and being forced to seek not only the payment due to them through court proceedings but also to prove the fact of work performed (its volume) for a particular customer.

In January 2023, the regional prosecutor's office received a collective appeal from citizens regarding the untimely settlement by an organization for work performed during the construction of a facility.

The prosecutor's office established that the head of the construction organization, in violation of the requirements of Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus No. 314 of July 6, 2005 "On Certain Measures to Protect the Rights of Citizens Performing Work under Civil Law and Labor Contracts" (hereinafter referred to as Decree No. 314), failed to include mandatory essential conditions in the subcontract agreements with the applicants, including the procedure for settlement between the parties and the customer's obligation to pay insurance contributions for the executor.

In response to the identified violations, the regional prosecutor's office issued a representation to the organization's head, demanding strict adherence to legislative requirements when concluding civil law contracts and organizing the processing of acts and settlements with employees. Furthermore, an administrative process has been initiated against the head of the construction facility.

In this regard, we would like to draw citizens' attention to

requirements regulating the relevant legal relations provided for by Decree No. 314.

Thus, along with other essential conditions, the contract must mandatorily include: the amount of payment and the settlement procedure between the parties, including the amounts to be paid; the customer's obligation to pay insurance contributions to the FSZN for the contractor; the parties' obligations to ensure safe working conditions and insurance against accidents; grounds for early termination of the contract.

A properly concluded civil law contract will not only regulate the relationship between the parties but will also serve as a reliable basis for the evidence in case of a court dispute.

One should not rely entirely on the good faith of customers, but rather, "armed" with the norms of the Decree, carefully study the terms of the contracts being concluded before signing them, demanding that all the aforementioned conditions be clearly reflected therein, in order to avoid spending one's "nerves" and time in court later on.

 

Senior Prosecutor of the Department for Supervision of

Legislation Enforcement

and Legality of Legal Acts

T.A. Ivanova