What is the penalty for submitting a fake sick leave? A situation where a sick leave certificate turned out to be a fake Criminal liability for forging a sick leave certificate

Forgery of documents is a punishable act. You will have to answer for a fake sick leave on several counts. It is not difficult to detect a fake if you know the verification parameters. In this case, responsibility lies with both the employee who provided the fake sick leave and the employer who accepted it.

How to distinguish a fake sick leave from a real one?

The certificate of incapacity for work must be issued in accordance with all the rules. This means that there cannot be any corrections in the document, and a stamp must be affixed by the medical institution that issued the document.

Authenticity sick leave can be checked using several parameters:

The paper should be thick. Money is made from similar material. A genuine sick leave certificate crunches in your hands.
The color of the form should be pale blue. Counterfeits are often green or blue.
The document can only be filled out with black gel paste. Ink of a different color is a sign of counterfeit.
There should be a barcode with a number value at the top of the document in the right corner. If it is missing, the paper is fake. Even if there is a number, the sick leave certificate may turn out to be a fake. You can verify the opposite by looking at the FSS RF database (website fss.ru). Another option is to call the medical institution that issued this document. The barcode should not stand out on the back of the document.

There must be a white square at the top of the document in the left corner. It is intended for matrix code, but its absence does not matter - not all organizations install it. Another factor indicates the authenticity of the document - a watermark on a white square. When the form is translucent, the FSS logo should be clearly visible.
Last name and initials of the doctor. This information is required. You can call the medical institution and find out if such a specialist works there.
In addition to the doctor’s surname and initials, the document must contain his signature. Instead, it is allowed to put down the specialist’s identification number.
It is important to check the details of the medical institution – its name and address. They must be indicated correctly and match the information on the stamps. You can verify the existence of a medical institution on the website roszdravnadzor.ru. In the same source you can find out whether the organization has a license - without it, issuing sick leave is illegal.
In the center of the stamps affixed at the medical institution there should be a note “for certificates of incapacity for work.” Another wording speaks of counterfeiting.
When looking at a sick leave note, you can see fibers. They come in different colors - blue, pink and light green. These fibers provide a protective function and are clearly visible under ultraviolet light.
The document has a prescribed form. The data is entered into special cells. On the original form they are light yellow in color. When counterfeited, the cells are often white.
The document contains the notes “doctor’s signature” and fields for the signatures of the manager and accountant. These zones look like ordinary lines, but if you look at the document under a magnifying glass, you will see the microtext “certificate of incapacity for work.”

Sick leave sheets perform several functions simultaneously. They provide justification for the employee’s absence, are necessary for calculating benefits to him and are mandatory in strict financial statements. For falsifying a certificate of incapacity, an employee bears several types of responsibility, according to which a certain punishment is imposed:

Disciplinary responsibility. This moment is regulated Labor Code:

According to Article 81 (Part 1, Clause 6a), the absence of an employee for unexcused reasons for more than 4 hours is considered absenteeism.
In accordance with Article 192, the employer has the right to disciplinary action, including dismissal of the employee.
According to Article 77 (clause 4), the contract will be terminated at the initiative of the employer, which is reflected in the work book.

Financial responsibility. It occurs if the employee received benefits using a fake form. The employer has the right to demand the return of this amount. By his side Federal law No. 255-FZ. If the employee refuses to reimburse the benefits paid to him, then the employer can withhold the required amount from the salary, but not more than 20% of the amount paid. If the accrued amount was not compensated, for example, upon dismissal of an employee, then it can be recovered through the court. In this case, all costs will have to be paid by the negligent employee.

Criminal liability . In the case of falsification of sick leave, the Criminal Code has several provisions.

1. If an employee used a forged document, knowing about this fact, then the punishment under Article 327 (clause 3) may be as follows:

a fine of no more than 80 thousand rubles (it can be replaced by salary for a period of no more than six months);
no more than 80 hours of compulsory work;
no more than 2 years of correctional labor;
maximum six months of arrest.

2. If the employee falsified the document himself, then the punishment under Article 327 (clause 1) will be more severe:

up to 2 years of restriction of freedom;
maximum six months of arrest;
up to 2 years of imprisonment.

3. Receiving payments based on a fake sick leave certificate may be regarded as theft. Under Article 159, the punishment may be as follows:

no more than 120 thousand rubles fine;
up to 360 hours of compulsory labor;
no more than a year of correctional labor;
up to 2 years of restriction of freedom;
up to 2 years of forced labor;
no more than 4 months of arrest;
up to 2 years of imprisonment.

It is important to take into account that disciplinary action must be applied within a certain time frame specified in Article 193 of the Labor Code. The employee must be notified of this fact 3 days before the relevant order is issued.

If an employee falsified sick leave, and the organization accepted it for accounting and paid the employee funds for it, then the Social Insurance Fund will not reimburse them. If the fact of document falsification was discovered after the funds were reimbursed, the employer must return them to the Social Insurance Fund. Learn more about verifying the authenticity of a sick leave certificate.

If the employer was unable to withhold illegally paid amounts from the employee, for example, due to the latter’s dismissal at will until a counterfeit is detected, he is obliged to reimburse the FSS funds in established deadlines. The employer must recover amounts illegally paid to the employee and expenses incurred without the participation of the Social Insurance Fund.

The Social Insurance Fund can be involved in legal proceedings only in the case when the situation occurred in an experimental region, where funds for sick leave are paid to employees directly from the state fund.

Employer's actions

In most cases, the employee provides sick leave in personnel service or accounting. He is obliged to do this within a certain time frame. The personnel officer receiving the document must visually inspect it for non-compliance with the sample and corrections. If there are any doubts about the authenticity of the sick leave certificate, an accountant or personnel officer should organize a check.

In this case, you should act according to a clearly defined scheme:

Contact the security service. If there is none in the organization, then necessary actions undertaken by a personnel officer or accountant. The authenticity of the document must be checked at the medical institution and on the FSS website.
Notifying the employee who submitted the fake document that fraud has been detected. The employee must write an explanatory note within 2 days.
If you refuse to write an explanation, you must draw up an act signed by a commission of at least three persons. This act will provide the basis for disciplinary action and will serve as evidence in case of going to court.
The fact of falsification of sick leave must be reported to the prosecutor's office. If the employee did not know that the sick leave was fake, then, by decision of management, an internal investigation may be launched.

The employer may not report the falsification of sick leave to the prosecutor's office. This is not a crime.

By agreement with the employer, the employee can voluntarily compensate for damage not only in monetary terms, but also material assets. The employer has the right to dismiss the employee or limit himself to another disciplinary sanction (reprimand or reprimand). The employer may also make concessions and allow the employee to resign at his own request.

Falsifying a sick leave certificate implies several types of liability, including criminal liability. The authenticity of the form can be easily verified, which should be remembered by both employees who decide to deceive and employees who accept such documents.

It often happens that unscrupulous employees at their place of work provide fake sick leave certificates. They blindly believe that there will be no negative consequences. But! They forget, or maybe they don’t know, that the law of the Russian Federation provides for three types of liability for such actions:

disciplinary;
material;
criminal

What is a certificate of incapacity for work?

This is a document that is issued to employed people in medical institutions as official proof of their temporary disability. If it is not provided, absence from work will be considered absenteeism. In 2011, the legislation of the Russian Federation established a form in accordance with which the document is drawn up. Its filling has a number important features, only medical workers know about them.

Interesting! Everyone has the opportunity to verify the authenticity of the sick leave certificate. To do this you need to call hotline to the FSS and provide the individual number indicated on the form.

According to the law, upon provision of sick leave, an employee is entitled to compensation payments. There are many people who want to miss work, but at the same time keep their job, plus, on top of everything, receive payments. Along with the demand for a service/product, the supply also grows. As an employer, you simply must know what to do if an employee brings a fake document.

Reasons to doubt the authenticity may be the unusual appearance of the form or the dubious circumstances of the absence of an employee to issue a certificate. At a minimum, you can send a request to the address of the medical institution that allegedly issued the sick leave.

What happens to someone who provides a false document?

Before describing the employer’s actions in connection with the provision of a fake sick leave certificate, would it not hurt to understand what threatens an unscrupulous employee? Modern legislation provides for several types of liability - civil and criminal. If the idea of forging a document comes to your mind, abandon it.

This act is criminally punishable and also constitutes a crime under Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. According to the law, an attacker faces forced labor, arrest for up to six months, or imprisonment for up to two years. Please note that punishment threatens not only the one who produced the fake document, but also the one who used it. In relation to the latter, a fine, compulsory/corrective labor, or arrest may be applied.

Important! An employer, a medical institution or federal service social insurance. This must be done immediately upon detection of a counterfeit. Most often, it is the FSS that detects the discrepancy when checking documents before making payments.

If an employee provided a fake sick leave certificate and payments were made on it, then the culprit may additionally be charged under Part 2 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - fraud in receiving payments. The law provides for a fine, mandatory/corrective/forced labor or arrest.

The employer is legally given the right to recover from the dishonest subordinate losses incurred as a result of payments or other expenses, for example, for examination. By and large, absenteeism is punishable by dismissal of an employee. You, as a boss, can resort to this measure at will.

Signs of a fake sick leave

On June 29, 2011, the order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development on the procedure for issuing documents confirming the temporary disability of citizens came into force. It clearly states which medical institutions provide certificates, which category of insured people, and in what order they are issued.

To recognize a fake, you must know that it can be absolute or partial. In the first case, the absence of watermarks on the form and a different quality of paper are characteristic. The printing, the shading lines, everything is different from the original. In the second case it may be indicated:

the name of a non-existent medical institution;
an institution that does not have the right to issue sick leave, and also does not have a license from the Ministry of Health to conduct an examination of temporary disability;
the name of a doctor who does not actually work.

The form may also be missing or have a non-existent sheet number. It is not normal to have traces of corrections or erasures. It also happens that the form is perfect in appearance, but upon checking it turns out that the patient’s name, period/date of issue or diagnosis do not match the data available in the documentation of the medical institution. Payments may not be made by the Social Insurance Fund due to incorrect completion of the form. This fact is recognized as an error only after confirmation of the authenticity of the document.

Consequences of employee dishonesty for the employer

It turns out that for a fake document, not only those who provided it, but also those who accepted it can be punished. For example, if during an inspection the FSS finds signs of counterfeiting, then the funds paid by the organization are not reimbursed to the company. But! If payments were made based on a false certificate, then the employee who received the money illegally must return it. Otherwise they will be deducted from it wages. It happens that an unscrupulous employee manages to quit at the time the fraud is discovered, then the employer will have to pay money to the Social Insurance Fund. In some situations public service have to collect the debt judicial procedure. Usually, inconsistencies are discovered during regular checks, and then not entirely pleasant times begin for the deceiver.

What is the employer legally required to do?

In 2006, a bill on compulsory social insurance was adopted, according to which sick leave is provided by employees no later than 6 months from the date of recognition of restoration of working capacity. Depending on the established internal procedures at the enterprise, a document confirming the fact of incapacity for work is provided to personnel or accounting. There, the official paper is checked for authenticity with the utmost care. Authorized employees evaluate whether the form corresponds to the established sample and whether it is free of erasures, corrections and etching.

Actions of the employer upon receipt of a fake sick leave:

he warns the employee that the fact of deception has been identified and the document provided by him is assessed as fake;
begins internal audit, the possibility of appealing to the prosecutor's office is allowed.

The employer may limit himself to dismissal for absenteeism, as well as use other recovery options. A serious punishment is a direct appeal to the prosecutor's office with the aim of initiating a criminal case.

If you are faced with a similar situation, it is better to immediately contact a lawyer. He will tell you how to act in the current situation, but you make the final decision on how to deal with the employee.

Situations often occur in which a company employee long time absent from work without reason. In this case, falsifying a sick leave certificate is one of the illegal methods to justify oneself. However, it contradicts the law and is fraught with prosecution of the entity that violated legislative norms.

General rules for issuing sick leave in 2018

General rules for document preparation are regulated by Order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation No. 624-n dated June 29, 2011. In 2018, relative to the previous rules for issuing sick leave, there are some adjustments in effect, consisting of the following:

if marks are made when filling out the paper, instead of drawing up a new document, an official copy or duplicate is issued that has legal force;
in the process of closing the sick period, the free columns “Exemption from work” should be crossed out with one neat horizontal line. This requirement was not previously recorded.

Other requirements have not changed:

All information must be entered in capital letters in the official state language (Russian).
Information must be entered into the document using a black pen. In this case, the use of a gel, capillary or fountain pen is allowed.
The text entered into the corresponding lines should not exceed their boundaries. If the information does not fit into the designated area on the sheet, it does not need to be added.
The stamp should not overlap the information entered on the sick leave sheet, however, it may go beyond the field allocated for it.

The persons responsible for the legality of the document being drawn up are the director of the company, its chief accountant or personnel officer.

It is also important to note the standard algorithm for issuing sick leave, which implies the following procedure:

The document must also contain the signature of the attending physician and a stamp medical institution. The absence of any data may indicate a fake.

Signs of a fake sick leave

There are a number of parameters by which you can identify a fake sick leave. Thus, authenticity is established based on the following features of the document:

The paper used for the document must be thick and strong (as for Russian bank notes). When such paper is folded, a characteristic crunch is observed.
The color of the document should be light blue.

Often green and blue paper is used for false documents.

The use of blue or purple paste, or any other color other than black, is a violation of the requirements and possible evidence of counterfeiting.
Upon closer examination, the paper of the original document has fibers, in particular, blue, pink and green. This structure protects the document. The colors are also perfectly visible in ultraviolet light.
This document has light yellow empty fields in which you must enter necessary information. In false documents, the indicated columns are often white.
There should be a barcode with a number in the upper right corner of the paper. Also, the barcode should not stand out on the back of the paper. Using this number, you can verify whether a specific sick leave is registered with the social insurance authorities or not. This information can be obtained on the official website of the FSS of the Russian Federation.
There should be a white square in the upper left corner. A sign of authenticity, in this case, is the watermark located in it (some companies do not use this attribute, which is not illegal). The watermark, in any case, is placed in the upper left corner and must be visible in the light.
In order to verify the authenticity of the doctor’s information, it is advisable to call the clinic indicated on the sick leave certificate.
In a counterfeit paper, the information on the seal and the actual address of the medical institution differ. The name may also differ (even in one or more letters).
All stamps affixed to sick leave certificates must have the imprint “For certificates of incapacity for work” in the center. All other phrases are fake.
The original document contains a micro-inscription under the lines where the signatures of authorized persons should be located. So, when examined with a magnifying glass, under each signature line the text “Certificate of Incapacity for Work” will be visible.

Disciplinary and financial liability for falsifying sick leave

The document in question is the basis for justifying the absence of a subordinate from work and providing the sick employee with benefits. Since this sheet is legal document, its falsification entails imputation of different levels of responsibility to the perpetrators.

Thus, one of the types of punishment for such an offense is disciplinary liability, which consists of the following:

in accordance with Art. 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, if an employee did not work for more than 4 days without a good reason (taking into account the canceled sick leave), he will be responsible for absenteeism;
based on Art. 192 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, as a disciplinary sanction for providing false documents, the employer can use the dismissal of a negligent subordinate;
on the basis of clause 4 of Art. 77 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the employer may initiate termination labor agreement with a subordinate, which will also be reflected in the work book.

Based on Art. 193 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, disciplinary liability must occur within the specified time frame - the employee must be notified of the occurrence of punishment at least three days before the publication of the relevant management order.

In addition to disciplinary, there is also financial liability for providing false documents. It is implied that this type punishment occurs if the subject received a monetary payment on the basis of a false sick leave certificate. Based on Federal Law No. 255 of December 29, 2006, in such conditions the employer has the right to demand compensation from the subordinate. In circumstances where the subject refuses to voluntarily return the amounts received, management may decide to withhold them from his salary.

Such deduction should not exceed 20% of the total amount of labor earnings.

It is also important to note that if an employee was fired and did not reimburse the benefits received, the employer has the right to go to court and thus recover the amount from the former subordinate. All costs arising during the consideration of the case in court are borne by the entity that violated the law.

Criminal liability for fake sick leave

Also, liability for falsifying sick leave is regulated by articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Based on Art. 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, if the subject provided the employer with a deliberately false document, the liability will be as follows:

In circumstances where the employee independently issued a false document, the punishment will be expressed as follows:

up to 2 years of forced labor;
up to 6 months of arrest.

The court may also consider an employee receiving compensation for a fake sick leave certificate as theft. In such circumstances, criminal liability will arise under Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, what does it mean?:

up to 120,000 rub. penalty;
up to 360 hours of forced labor;
up to 1 year of correctional labor;
up to 2 years of restriction or complete deprivation of liberty of the subject;
up to 4 months of arrest.

Consequences of registering a false forged sheet for the employer

If a subordinate falsified a sick leave document, and the company accepted the forgery for accounting, after which it calculated and issued the amount of benefits to the subject, then, upon detection of such a violation, the Social Insurance Fund is not obliged to reimburse the business entity.

In the event that the employer discovers the employee’s illegal actions after reimbursement of funds from the Social Insurance Fund, his responsibilities include reimbursement of the employee’s sick leave funds to the social insurance body.

If the punishment for a false sick leave was not carried out in a timely manner (for example, before the person was dismissed at his own request), then the employer is obliged to reimburse the amounts issued to the employee to the Social Insurance Fund from own funds. The question of collecting compensation directly from former employee in the future it should be resolved through the court, without the involvement of social insurance authorities.

The employer's procedure for detecting a fake sick leave certificate

Often, the subject sends a fake sick leave to human resources or accounting employees. This procedure is carried out within the established standard time frames. The person accepting the sick leave must visually assess the condition of the document for its compliance general rules filling out such papers. If the recipient of the sick leave has doubts about its authenticity, he must arrange for appropriate verification.

In such circumstances, the algorithm of actions will be as follows:

The inspector contacts the enterprise security service. If there is no such education in the company, all required actions must be carried out by the chief accountant or head of the personnel department. In particular, the authenticity of the paper is verified by calling or requesting a clinic, as well as on the official social insurance portal.
Notifying the employee that a counterfeit has been detected. Within two days, the person must provide an explanatory document.
If a person refuses to provide an explanatory note, it is necessary to draw up a corresponding act. For this purpose, a commission is formed consisting of at least 3 company employees (HR officer, accountant or any other authorized employee). This act will become the basis for bringing the violator to disciplinary liability, as well as the basis for forming a claim.
In addition, the prosecutor’s office must be notified of the detection of sick leave fraud. In circumstances where the employee did not know that the document he was providing was fraudulent, an investigation should be launched by the prosecutor's office.

The employer has the right not to notify the prosecutor's office about the detection of a fake sick leave certificate. Such an action is not illegal.

Practice shows that, by agreement with management, an employee can voluntarily compensate for material damage caused (in this case, property compensation is often considered). Also, in such circumstances, it is quite common for the manager to agree to dismiss a subordinate at his own request.

Thus, falsifying a sick leave certificate entails liability various types, including criminal. Employers and subordinates are advised to carefully check hospital documents for their authenticity in order to avoid it.

A sick leave certificate is an official document that confirms that for a certain time an employee was unable to perform work functions due to illness. This form is completed by the attending physician. It is certified by the signature of a specialist and the seal of the institution. This document must be provided to the employer upon entering the service.

Responsibility has been established for falsifying a sick leave certificate. The punishment is prescribed according to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

It’s not difficult to make sure that a sick leave is fake. Each form has its own number. An employer can call the Social Security Fund hotline and find out whether a document with that number was actually issued. If he receives a negative answer, the employee will be punished.

There is also responsibility for purchasing sick leave. We answered the question whether a sick leave certificate is an official document. Next, we will tell you what the penalties for counterfeiting are.

Illegal sick leave

If an employer discovers a fake sick leave certificate, he must contact the police. The following may also be reported about a counterfeit document:

medical facility;
attending physician.

Pay attention!
Most often, the FSS reports to law enforcement about counterfeit certificates of incapacity for work, since it carefully checks all the papers before transferring payments.

You can report falsification of sick leave to the police under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in the following cases:

the form is questionable;
the circumstances of the employee’s illness seem suspicious (in such a situation, a request is made to the medical organization in advance).

Forgery of sick leave - article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is devoted to forgery of sick leave. It talks about other documents, state awards, seals, stamps and forms. This rule determines the punishment for fake sick leave. It depends on the circumstances and threatens both the employee and the doctor who falsified the paper.

The article for forgery of sick leave also defines liability for concealing another crime through forgery and using a forged document.

Attackers face one of the following sanctions:

fine;
compulsory work;
correctional work;
forced labor;
arrest;
imprisonment.

Punishment for providing a fake sick leave certificate can be imposed under Article 159.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “fraud in receiving payments.” The offender may receive work, a fine or arrest as a sanction.

Responsibility for falsifying a sick leave certificate

Employers and employees are often interested in the dangers of falsifying sick leave. There are two types of liability: criminal and civil. The first implies a sanction in the form of a suspended or real term, work, arrest or fine, and the second implies compensation for the harm caused.

Pay attention!
The employer is the victim in such cases, so it is he who is compensated for the damage.

If a citizen has produced a false document that grants any right or relieves of responsibilities, one of the following penalties may be imposed for a fake sick leave:

suspended or real sentence up to 2 years;
forced labor for the same period;
arrest for up to six months.

If the document was prepared to hide another crime, liability for falsifying a sick leave certificate will be stricter. As a sanction, the court may choose forced labor or imprisonment for a period of up to 4 years.

If the criminals not only made a fake, but also used it (in the case of sick leave, this includes presenting it to the employer and receiving payments), the court may order:

fine up to 80 thousand rubles;
compulsory work up to 480 hours;
correctional labor for up to 2 years;
arrest up to 6 months.

If the attacker is caught committing fraud when receiving payments, the punishment will be imposed under a different article. Art. 159.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation establishes sanctions for theft of funds when receiving benefits, compensation, etc. by submitting false data. This is punishable by a fine of up to 120 thousand rubles, compulsory labor for up to a year, a suspended sentence of up to 2 years, forced labor for the same period, or arrest for up to 4 months.

As a punishment for false sick leave, the employer may require the employee to reimburse all expenses. For example, this may include expenses for temporary disability payments and the services of experts to verify the authenticity of a document.

Pay attention!
For absence from work without good reason, an employee has the right to be fired.

A doctor who falsifies a sick leave certificate faces punishment for violating the law when using his official position.

It is not so easy to prove that a fake sick leave was prepared by a doctor for money. A qualified lawyer can provide assistance in such matters. He will collect evidence of the employee’s guilt and seek reimbursement of all the employer’s expenses through the court.

If the employee needs help, the lawyer will convince the court to impose a more lenient sentence.

24.04.2014

Companies offering to prepare a certificate of incapacity for work for everyone within an hour, and even with home delivery, are a dime a dozen today. Despite all the efforts of the FSS of Russia, it still fails to deprive the craftsmen who sell “linden” of their daily bread. Electronic sick notes should soon improve the situation. True, this will most likely happen only by the end of 2014. In the meantime, accountants can only rely on themselves – on their experience and attentiveness.

Demand gives rise to supply - there are many who want to buy homemade sick leave. Therefore, it is not surprising that employees of the Russian Social Insurance Fund encounter fake certificates of incapacity for work with enviable regularity. As a rule, distinguishing “linden” is not so difficult. However, there are fakes of high quality. Therefore, an accountant, when accepting sick leave from employees, needs to be vigilant: not to miss the “left” document is task number one.

Virtual hope

As the head of the insurance department for temporary disability and maternity of the Federal Social Insurance Fund of Russia said Irina Bukina, false documents come across to specialists several times a week. At the same time, FSS specialists are perplexed what the citizens who purchase these same sheets hope for. After all, each form has a unique number, so it won’t be too difficult for the fund’s specialists to spot the “linden” among the correct hospital records.

“It is worth noting that people selling hospital certificates have nothing to do with medicine. We looked at sites that provide similar services on the Internet. Total fraud. The license numbers indicated on such sites always turned out to be non-existent,” Bukina said.

People selling sick certificates have nothing to do with medicine. We looked at sites that provide similar services on the Internet. Total scam...

FSS specialists place special hopes on electronic sick leave. The introduction of a “virtual” certificate of incapacity for work should minimize the number of fake sick leave. “We would really like to see paper medical records replaced by electronic ones for a sufficient portion of the country’s population by the end of 2014,” said the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation. Veronica Skvortsova. - We have already taken significant steps in this direction: three heavy-duty servers have been created and properly protected (two working and one backup), which will contain all the information about all the medical histories of the country’s residents, a special system for saving personal data has been created so that no one worries regarding information leaks."

Visual control

According to employees of the Federal Social Insurance Fund of Russia, an accountant with due care will be able to distinguish a “correct” sick leave from a fake without much difficulty.

The first thing you should pay attention to is the quality of the paper and the presence/absence of watermarks on the sick leave. The color of the certificate of incapacity for work should be pale blue and in no case bright blue or bright green. The filled cells are not white (as in fakes), but have a yellowish tint.

If you look at the sick leave certificate against the light, you should see the coat of arms and the inscription of the Federal Social Insurance Fund of Russia.
Secondly, the certificate of incapacity for work is always filled out with a black gel pen. The presence of notes in the hospital in ink of any other color is a sure sign of a surrogate.

Third, the certificate of incapacity for work must have two seals, in the center of which it is written: “for certificates of incapacity for work.” In fakes, you can find other wording, for example, “for sick leave.”

Fourth, the barcode in the upper right corner of the form should not be clearly visible on the back of the sick leave.

And fifth, the disability form must certainly contain the full name and signature of the doctor or his identification number.

Memo for doubters

In order to make life easier for accountants, the Social Insurance Fund has prepared a booklet “Information for policyholders. About falsified certificates of incapacity for work.” It describes in detail the signs by which a fake can be identified with almost 100% accuracy.

Among these signs:

absence of a watermark with the logo of the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation;
lack of protective fibers of three types: blue, pink, light green;
the quality of the paper does not correspond to the quality of the legitimate form of the certificate of incapacity for work (the original paper to the touch resembles that on which banknotes are printed);
incorrect names and addresses of medical organizations are used;
seals do not correspond to the name of medical organizations;
in the design of the section “To be completed by a doctor of a medical organization” of the certificate of incapacity for work, the period of inpatient treatment and information about the attending physician are not indicated.

Serious punishment

If the accountant continues to doubt whether the sick leave is fake, we advise you to contact the authorities of the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation with a request for verification. “All forms have unique numbers. An employer can always call our hotline and dictate the sick leave number that has raised suspicions. Within a few minutes, the authenticity of the sick leave can be established,” Irina Bukina commented on the situation.

In addition, the employer can contact the police. Law enforcement officers, within the framework of their powers, will have to check by whom, when and under what circumstances the fake certificate of incapacity for work was issued.

Note

Forgery of documents carries a fine of up to 180 thousand rubles, or correctional labor for up to two years, or restriction of freedom for up to four years.

Forgery of documents, by the way, provides for criminal liability (Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Forgery, production or sale of counterfeit documents, state awards, stamps, seals, forms”). This act provides for a fine of up to 180 thousand rubles, or correctional labor for up to two years, or restriction of freedom for up to four years.

In addition, Article 159.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Fraud in receiving payments” also provides for criminal liability. Yes, for theft cash or other property when receiving benefits, compensation, subsidies and other social payments by providing knowingly false and (or) unreliable information, as well as by keeping silent about facts leading to the termination of these payments, faces a fine of up to 1 million rubles, corrective labor for up to five years, imprisonment - up to four years.

Calling a "friend"

And yet, if possible, it is better to do without unnecessary fuss and resolve the issue peacefully. An accountant who discovers a fake sick leave should call the “offending” employee into the office and ask him to write a statement of his own free will. The HR employee has the right to dismiss such an employee in one day.

If the employee begins to “resist” and prove his innocence, the accountant can call the medical institution where the sick leave was issued. The question of who is right and who is wrong will be resolved within a few minutes.

Ekaterina Petrova, for the magazine “Moscow Accountant”

Work with personnel at the enterprise

Correctly drawn up documents will protect you from penalties from inspectors and will remove you from conflict situation with employees. With the e-book “Working with Personnel in an Enterprise,” you will have all your documentation in perfect order.