Committee on Labor, Employment and Social Protection: on the norms of legislation for the employment of minors

Conclusion of an employment contract.

An employment contract can be concluded with persons aged 16 years (Article 21 of the Labor Code of the Republic of Belarus (hereinafter referred to as the LC)).

An employment contract may be concluded with a person who has reached the age of 14 years only with the written consent of one of the parents (adoptive parent, guardian) (Article 21 of the LC). Such consent may be expressed by submitting a separate written application to the employer.

Notarial certification of consent for the employment of a minor is not provided for by law.

A sample form of an employment contract is established by the Resolution of the Ministry of Labor of the Republic of Belarus dated December 27, 1999 No. 155.

Please note!

After signing the employment contract, the underage employee must be familiarized, under signature, with the internal labor regulations, labor protection instructions, job description, collective agreement, remuneration policy, and other local legal acts in force at the employer's organization.

Employment contracts concluded with persons under 14 years of age, as well as with persons who have reached 14 years of age but without the written consent of one of the parents (adoptive parent, guardian), are considered invalid (Art. 22 of the Labor Code).

Employment of minors on a part-time basis is not permitted (Art. 348 of the Labor Code).

When concluding an employment contract with minors, the employer is not entitled to establish a probationary period for them (Article 28 of the Labor Code).

When hiring, the employer is obliged to request the documents necessary for concluding an employment contract from the employee (Article 54 of the Labor Code). The list of these documents is contained in Article 26 of the Labor Code.

Hiring without the specified documents is not allowed (Article 26 of the Labor Code).

However, minors who are employed for the first time usually do not have a work record book, a state social insurance certificate, or an education document. The absence of these documents is not an obstacle to their employment.

It is quite common for employment record books not to be issued to minor employees due to the short duration of their employment.

However, employment record books are completed by the employer (with the exception of employers who are individuals) for all employees working for more than 5 days, including those starting work for the first time, if the work with the given employer is their primary employment (Clause 4 of the Instructions on the Procedure for Maintaining Employment Record Books, approved by the Resolution of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Republic of Belarus dated 16.06.2014 No. 40 (hereinafter referred to as Instruction No. 40).

Thus, hiring an employee, even for a short period exceeding 5 days, does not exempt the employer from the obligation to issue and complete an employment record book for them.

An exception to this rule is provided only for employers who are individual entrepreneurs.

All individuals under the age of 18 are hired only after a preliminary medical examination and, until they reach the age of 18, are subject to an annual mandatory medical examination (Article 275 of the Labor Code).

Work Assigned to Minors.

Work performed by minors aged 14 to 16 must be classified as light work and must not harm their health or development (Article 272 of the Labor Code).

When determining the category of work intended for a minor, the employer should be guided by the list of light types of work that can be performed by individuals aged fourteen to sixteen, established by the Resolution of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Belarus dated October 15, 2010 No. 144.

Please note!

The list provided is exhaustive! This means that minors aged 14 to 16 are not allowed to perform work not included in it.

When employing persons aged 16 to 18, it should be taken into account that the employment of persons under 18 years of age in heavy work and in work with harmful and (or) dangerous working conditions, as well as in underground and mining work, is prohibited (Article 274 of the Labor Code).

When hiring persons of the specified category, one should be guided by the list of works on which the employment of persons under eighteen years of age is prohibited, established by the Resolution of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Belarus dated June 27, 2013 No. 67.

In addition to the requirements listed, when assigning work to a minor, the employer must also take into account the maximum limits for lifting and moving heavy objects manually by minors, established by the Resolution of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus of October 13, 2010 No. 134.

Working hours for minors.

When determining the working hours of minor employees, it should be taken into account that for this category of persons, the following working hours are established:

for employees aged 14 to 16 years – no more than 23 hours per week;

for employees aged 16 to 18 years – no more than 35 hours per week (Article 114 of the Labor Code).

The duration of daily work (shift) cannot exceed:

for workers aged 14 to 16 – 4 hours and 36 minutes,
from sixteen to eighteen – 7 hours;

for students receiving general secondary, vocational-technical education, special education at the level of general secondary education, working during the academic year in their free time, aged fourteen to sixteen – 2 hours and 18 minutes, aged sixteen to eighteen – 3 hours and 30 minutes (Art. 115 of the Labor Code).

Involvement of minors in night and overtime work, work on public holidays, festive and weekend days.

It is prohibited to involve employees under 18 years of age in night and overtime work, work on public holidays, festive and non-working days, unless otherwise established by the Labor Code (Article 276 of the Labor Code).

Employees under 18 years of age are not allowed to work at night (from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.), even if it falls within a working day or shift, as well as to perform overtime work, work on public holidays and festive days declared non-working by the President of the Republic of Belarus, and on non-working days, unless otherwise established by the Labor Code (Articles 117, 120, 276 of the Labor Code).

In addition, minors are not subject to non-standard working hours (Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated December 10, 2007 No. 1695).

Setting output norms for minors.

Due to physiological peculiarities, minors are unable to perform work on par with adult employees.

Taking this into account, for employees under 18 years of age, output norms are established based on the output norms for adult employees, proportionally to the reduced working hours provided for by law for this category of employees (Article 278 of the Labor Code).

Remuneration of Minors.

When remunerating minors, the specifics stipulated by Article 279 of the Labor Code must be taken into account.

The remuneration of employees under 18 years of age, with a reduced duration of daily work, shall be made in the same amount as the remuneration of employees of relevant categories with a full working week.

The labor of employees under 18 years of age, admitted to piece-rate work, is paid at piece-rate tariffs established for adult employees, with an additional payment at the tariff rate (tariff salary), salary for the time during which the duration of their daily work is reduced compared to the duration of daily work of adult employees.
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The remuneration of students receiving general secondary education, special education, education at the level of general secondary education, vocational-technical and secondary specialized education, working in their free time from studies, is carried out in proportion to the time worked or depending on the output. Employers may establish additional payments to wages.

Duration of annual leave for minor employees.

The duration of annual leave for minors is 30 calendar days (Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated 24.01.2008 No. 100).

As a general rule, for the first year of work, annual leave (main and additional) is granted to employees no earlier than six months after commencing employment with the employer. However, this condition does not apply to certain categories of employees.

For instance, at the request of minor employees, the employer is obliged to grant them annual leave before the expiration of six months of work in the first year of employment (Article 166 of the Labor Code).

Furthermore, in the scheduling of annual leave, annual leave for employees under 18 years of age is granted during the summer or, at their request, at any other convenient time of the year (Articles 168 and 277 of the Labor Code).

Annual leave for employees under 18 years of age is granted to them annually during the working year, meaning that the transfer of leave (or part thereof) to the next working year is not permitted (Article 170 of the Labor Code), and it can only be used in kind, i.e., it cannot be replaced by monetary compensation (Article 161 of the Labor Code).

Recall from annual leave for employees of this age category is also not allowed (Art. 174 of the Labor Code).

The Labor Code contains certain guarantees regarding the financial liability of minor employees.

An employer is not entitled to conclude written agreements on full financial liability with employees under 18 years of age
(Art. 405 of the Labor Code).

In accordance with the clarifications contained in the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus of March 26, 2002 No. 2 "On the Application by Courts of Legislation on the Material Liability of Employees for Damage Caused to the Employer in the Performance of Labor Duties" as applied to clauses 1 and 2, as well as parts 1 and 2 of clause 3 of Article 25 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Belarus, taking into account the provisions of Article 273 of the Labor Code, the minor aged 14 to 16 years bears material liability in the amount established by the Labor Code for damage caused to the employer, and the person who gave written consent to conclude the employment contract bears subsidiary liability. Minors who have reached the age of 16 bear such liability independently. Minors do not bear material liability on the grounds provided for in clause 1 of Article 404 of the Labor Code, since written agreements on full material liability can be concluded by the employer with employees who have reached the age of 18 (part 1 of Article 405 of the Labor Code

Thus, dismissal on certain grounds is permissible only with the consent of the district (city) commission for juvenile affairs.

These grounds include:

liquidation of an organization, termination of activities of a branch, representative office or other separate subdivision of an organization located in another locality, termination of activities of an individual entrepreneur, reduction in the number or staff of employees;

non-compliance of the employee with the position held or work performed due to health status that prevents the continuation of this work;

non-compliance of the employee with the position held or work performed due to insufficient qualifications that prevent the continuation of this work;

Absence from work for more than four consecutive months due to temporary incapacity for work (excluding maternity leave), unless legislation establishes a longer period for retaining the job (position) in case of a specific illness.

For employees who have lost their ability to work due to an industrial injury or occupational disease, the job (position) is retained until their ability to work is restored or disability is established.

Dismissal on the grounds provided for in subclauses 4, 5, 7-9 of Article 42 and subclauses 2 and 3 of Article 44 of the Labor Code is possible for minors only after prior notification, at least two weeks in advance, to the district (city) commission for juvenile affairs, unless otherwise established by the Labor Code.