EMPLOYMENT RECORD DOCUMENTS HAVE BECOME HISTORY

A truly historic decision has been taken in Azerbaijan to simplify the "confused tangle" of the employment record system, making the record-keeping process  easier when you start a new job.

All employers in Azerbaijan have till 1 July 2014 to introduce the online format stipulated for employment contracts concluded before this current year. The application of an online system for recording e-contracts is to begin in Azerbaijan in the very near future, Minister of Labour and Social Protection of the population Salim Muslimov has reported and, once it starts,[hard-copy] employment record documents in Azerbaijan are to be abolished.

"All the necessary software has already been prepared. We have also completed the drawing up of the corresponding regulations which are currently being submitted to the bodies of executive authority," he said. "This is customary in the practice of the civilised world, within the framework of which employment records are registered online." According to Muslimov, when a person is initially employed in a new job and the contracts concluded, all the relevant information will be registered in real time, as well as online. 

It should be recalled that the use of an online system in hiring employees became possible after the Milli Maclis [parliament] had adopted the relevant amendments to the Labour Code which came into force in February by decree of Azerbaijan's president.  When commenting on the amendments adopted, the chairman of the Milli Maclis Legal Policy and State Building Committee, Ali Huseynli, noted that the amendments to the code were aimed at stepping up the monitoring of tax payments, improving the registration of employees and regulating wages and salary issues. But the main innovations are those involving the registration completed in 2013. As a result, the rights of employees will be protected, and employers will be compelled to comply with this ruling," Huseynli noted.

How it works

Notification of the conclusion and cancellation of employment contracts must be entered in the online data base of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection. In accordance with the amendments to the Labour Code, employment does not begin with the signing of the contract, but from the day that notification of the employment contract appears online and the relevant data is sent to the employers. It is envisaged that, after notification has been registered online by the employers, the relevant data will be sent to them within one working day.

In an interview with Regionplus, the HR manager of one of the country's publications, Saida Mahmudova, reported that registration of employment details online has almost been completed in her organisation. "At any rate, the online records of all the employees working for our publication have long been registered in the online data base of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection. There is only one thing left to do and that is to bin the hard-copy employment records and make more room in our filing cabinets. I think this attribute of our Soviet past will be handed in by the employers to the relevant body in a centralised manner.  The decision regarding his has still not been adopted." 

An expert welcomes the decision to simplify employment records, taking into consideration the fact that this will make the registration of hired labour easier. Working with the employment record documents was always a bother since a great deal of time was wasted on them, a lot of storage space was needed for them, and an employee constantly had to take the documents from one job to another. Now the employer will be able to obtain data about an employee's previous employment and length of service from a single data base in a day. It is interesting that the employee himself can access his "online employment record" by applying to the ASAN service. When taking on a new employee, the employer concludes a new employment contract with him or her, after which the details of the employee's working life are entered in the Ministry of Labour data base, the HR manager concluded, after stressing that only a few of the countries of the former Soviet Union, which included Azerbaijan until recently, still use hard-copy employment records.In 2012-2013 the Ministry of Taxes and the State Labour Inspection Service under the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population exposed about 200,000 instances of illegal business.

ON "THE EMPLOYMENT RECORD DOCUMENT"

The employment record document is an official personal document containing details of a citizen's working life.It was common in the former USSR and is still used in many countries of the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States].

It was instituted when a person first started work and was kept at the personnel department of the employing organisation; it contained personal details, date and year of birth, education, profession and specialisation. All the amendments and any information on the inter-relations with the employer were registered in the employment record document and it was certified by the signature of the personnel department official. Notes about dismissal were undersigned personally by the citizen concerned. When an employee was dismissed or moved to another job, the employment record was handed back to the citizen and, when he or she took a job in another organisation, it was handed over to the personnel department.

In France in 1749, when an employee started a job, he needed to present a document from the previous employer. This practice was current in order to deal with vagrancy. From 1781 these single documents were inserted into "employment record books". They were abolished during the Great French Revolution but reintroduced in 1803 under Napoleon. Up until 1854 they were constantly kept by the employer, but after the 22nd June law was passed, the employee retained them. They ceased to be compulsory in 1890, but were issued right up until the end of 1908.

Employment record documents were introduced in Denmark in 1832 and in Germany in 1892. A system of employment record documents, compulsory for all employees, was gradually introduced in Hitler's Germany (1935-1945). In the post-war GDR [German Democratic Republic] they existed until 1967.  They were current in Italy from 1935-1997 and then they were replaced by a labour data system. In Slovenia they were used from 1990 to 2009 and then replaced by a pension fund data base. At the Russian Federation Ministry of Health and Social Development it was considered possible to abolish employment record documents from 2012, but this has not happened yet.