The term "abuse of office" is familiar to us, primarily from the media, comprehensively covering high-profile criminal cases related to the illegal actions of law enforcement officers. But the notion of "abuse of office", and "abuse of office powers" is not alien to civil, labor, corporate and tax legislation. For example, employers quite often face abuse of official authority by their employees. Such as disclosure of information bearing the status of a company's commercial secret, embezzlement of the employer's property, understatement of the value of goods by sales managers and other offenses. What should the employer do in this case, how to protect one's rights and what responsibility can be taken by a negligent employee?
Types of responsibility
What measures can the employer take, exposing the employee to abuse of authority or abuse of authority? Responsibility for an offense of this kind may be material, administrative, disciplinary, civil or criminal. What kind of responsibility to apply depends on the type of offense committed by the employee. Moreover, to material and disciplinary responsibility, an enterprise can independently attract an employee who has abused or exceeded authority. Other types of liability can be applied to the employee only with the participation of the relevant government agencies authorized to do so.
Disciplinary action
Disciplinary sanctions include: dismissal, reprimand and observation. Of course, after a serious violation, the employer has a desire to dismiss an employee. But this can only be done on an appropriate basis, and the duty to prove the guilt of the dismissed person lies with the employer. Also, if the reason for dismissal is the disclosure of trade secrets, the employer must prove that all necessary measures have been taken to keep it secret. In case of non-observance of these conditions, in case of a trial, dismissal will be recognized as unlawful. A legal discharge in the event of employee abuse of authority or abuse of authority will be considered if the following conditions are met:
1. The grounds for dismissal, as for disciplinary punishment, should be sufficient. The fact of abuse of the employee by his job duties or their exceeding should be proved, and labor offenses are documented.
2. The procedure for imposing a disciplinary penalty must be observed. If there is a trial, the employer will have to prove that:
2.1. The violation that the employee committed, and which was the reason for dismissal, took place and is sufficient to terminate the employment contract.
2.2. The terms established for the application of the disciplinary penalty were met by the employer. Disciplinary punishment may be applied to the employee not later than 1 month from the date of detection of the violation, with the exception of the vacation time, illness of the employee and the time necessary to take into account the opinion of the representative body of workers. Later, than 6 months from the date of committing the violation, disciplinary punishment is not applied. Based on the results of an audit or financial and economic audit, disciplinary action
Material recovery
The employee may be deprived of the premium, as the condition for its payment is the absence of disciplinary penalties. If the employee caused damage to the organization or third parties by his actions, it is possible to involve the employee in material responsibility. All amounts paid by the employer to compensate for this damage, the employee will have to reimburse the employer.