When may a full and limited material liability be imposed on the employee in a commercial company?

A distinctive feature of compensation of damage to property in the Russian labor law is a restriction in the size of compensation for losses caused to the employer. The major type of property accountability is a limited property accountability. This means that the size of damages caused to the commercial company equals a sum, equal to a dozen monthly salaries of the employee, and he bears a material liability within his average monthly salary. Thus, if the employee's salary is 2,000 rubles, but the aggregate damages to the commercial company equals 100,000 rubles, then the amount of compensation would not exceed 2,000 rubles. All the remaining balance should be attributed to process costs.

The restrictive principle pertaining to compensation of damages to property can be traced also in the impossibility for the commercial company to claim compensation of all losses incurred at the expense of extra (indirect) payments to the employee (aggregate income).

Thus, the employee who is in labor relations with the commercial company, should his labor duties be violated and if it caused damages to property, as a rule, bears a restrictive material accountability. As is concerned the employee's obligation to compensation for damages caused in full, regardless of the size of the salary thereof, then it is strictly specified by law. Thus, all instances where it is possible to make the employee fully materially liable are enumerated by article 121 of the Labor Code of the RF. This specifies 7 instances of full material accountability which can be conditionally divided into a contractual liability for specific damage and a compulsory liability for any damage in separate instances where it is caused.

The main criterion for imposition of a full material liability under the agreement is, as a rule, the specifics of the employee's duties, which are mainly connected with the service of assets and money. A written agreement covering a full individual and collective material liability should be entered into with separate categories of the staff, which make an addendum to the employment agreement. In the second instance, one should speak about damages caused during the performance of labor duties, if damage is caused by crime, which is confirmed by the judgement of the court entered into force, in the instance of intentional property destruction, and also if damages were caused by the employee in the state of alcohol intoxication.