No matter how sad it may sound, work takes up most of a person’s life. There is an unspoken attitude that you need to get an education, find a profession you like and work until you retire.
Older people have a special attitude towards continuous work experience. In their opinion, this is an indicator of professionalism and dedication to their work, which in the future will ensure a relatively comfortable old age.
The modern generation rarely has such dedication to the profession, and thanks to pension and social reforms there is no understanding at all of the importance of work experience. In order to correctly place the emphasis, it is useful to understand why continuous work experience is needed.
Is continuous service cancelled?
During the Soviet period, permanent work was a guarantee of receiving an increased pension and additional benefits for length of service. The accrual of social benefits, for example, sick pay, also depended on the length of service. Therefore, people of the older generation still retain the concept and meaning of long-term work.
But what value does continuous experience have now? Firstly, the rules for paying sick leave have changed. It is not based on the period of work, but on the employee’s income for the previous two calendar years.
Secondly, the calculation of pensions has a complex formula, in which work experience is also not taken into account in the first place. Thirdly, various bonuses for length of service are now preserved mainly in state and municipal organizations. In some commercial organizations, this takes the form of additional employee motivation for long-term cooperation.
Currently, the term “insurance period” is more common, i.e. the time during which taxes and insurance premiums from the organizations where he worked were paid to the employee’s personal insurance account. Of course, there is a direct relationship: the longer you work, the higher the length of service and, accordingly, the more insurance premiums paid.
Thus, the terms “insurance period” and “continuous service” can be considered identical, but there are several differences.
Insurance experience can only be obtained from an official employer, who transfers all required payments. The insurance period includes all periods of work documented not only in the work book. For example, fixed-term contracts that are not reflected in the book also need to be taken into account to calculate the length of service (if there were insurance payments for them).
The insurance period is not interrupted, even if the person did not work officially or at all. Only contributions are taken into account, and the frequency with which they were made does not matter. For continuous work experience, it was necessary to work constantly; a break of more than three months meant actually resetting the accumulated years.
The Labor Code also does not contain information about continuous length of service, its calculation and meaning, unlike insurance.
It cannot be said that continuous experience has ceased to exist. It can be considered as an indicator of a person’s performance, constancy and reliability. It is always doubtful to see a mature specialist with an empty work book; for many employers, this raises suspicions that the employee is unreliable and a reason to refuse a job.
Legal meaning
The concept of “work experience” has a collective meaning, so the terminology should be separated.
Lawyers distinguish three types of experience:
- Insurance period is the period during which insurance premiums are paid per person.
- Total length of service is the actual value of how many years a person has worked in his life without taking into account breaks in work.
- Continuous work experience shows how many years you have worked without breaks for less than one month (in exceptional cases three months)
The role of each seniority is different. For example, the total length of service does not matter if a person worked unofficially for a long time, since the amount of his income was actually not taken into account anywhere, and there were no insurance payments. Therefore, this will not in any way affect the increase in social payments and benefits.
How long do men and women need to work?
As we wrote above, today, when calculating regular cash income, working time without interruption does not play a special role. Your accruals will depend on the amount of your salary, the number of insurance contributions, as well as the total time you work. And although NTS no longer plays the same role as before, it is absolutely impossible to do without experience.
You can read about its importance for determining benefits in Federal Law No. 400 of December 28, 2013. Today, the insurance part comes to the fore, which gives the right to receive cash assistance based on age. As already mentioned, starting from 2020, the required number of years worked will increase until 2024.
IMPORTANT! If you do not have the required insured work time required by law, your retirement age will automatically increase to 60 years for women and 65 for men.
Why do you need continuous work experience?
Nowadays, insurance experience matters, so it is difficult to determine the true role of continuous work in legislative documents. However, in some situations it is continuous experience that matters:
- full calculation of temporary disability benefits;
- calculation of temporary unemployment benefits;
- determining the possibility of providing a person with additional education and advanced training;
- pension calculation;
- wage supplement, especially important for civil servants or municipal workers;
- receiving additional benefits if they are fixed at the federal or regional level;
- preferential retirement based on length of service in professions established by law.
Although the labor code now does not contain a definition of continuous length of service, its role has been preserved and, in one way or another, contributes to the receipt of social guarantees and compensation.
Important points
The exact amount of the benefit has not yet been determined, and, most likely, it will be different in each region. But on average, the planned amount of payments is in the range from 1,000 to 3,000 rubles, which will be a very significant increase in pensions at the regional level. At the same time, the exact amount of payments will be individual, since regional authorities also introduce a number of criteria that increase the minimum amount of benefits.
Such criteria should include the scope of a person’s work activity, which will be taken into account along with continuous work experience, in particular: • social workers; • medical workers; • employees of municipal and state institutions; • miners; • firefighters; • education workers; • people working in hazardous or hazardous industries.
This list is not yet complete and can be continued at the discretion of local regional authorities. But first of all, the benefit is aimed at supporting people who actively contributed their work to the development of the region or the country as a whole.
Does continuous service affect sick leave?
Although the term “continuous service” does not actually exist, this does not mean that it has ceased to have meaning. For example, to receive sick leave benefits, the total period of work is important:
- with less than 5 years of experience, the amount of sick leave will be 60% of the salary;
- from 5 to 8 years – 80%;
- more than 8 years – 100%.
The calculation of temporary disability benefits has the following indicators:
- the employee’s average income two calendar years before the onset of the disease;
- average daily salary (calculated from the previous value);
- total work experience, which is recorded in the work book and contracts not included in the book.
At the same time, insurance contributions were transferred to the employee from each place of work.
What is the impact of continuous experience in 2018?
In connection with numerous reforms in the social sphere (pension reform, changes in methods of paying for sick leave), the meaning of continuous service has changed. Any benefit, state payments (pensions) depend on the accumulated insurance experience.
However, the role of seniority remains relevant. Length of service can be called continuous experience. This is a period when a person has worked for several years in a specific professional field without breaks.
Not all workers are entitled to a preferential long-service pension. First of all, this is due to the specifics of the work, its danger, emotional and physical stress. Thanks to this, people receive additional compensation from the state.
The assigned areas of activity that qualify for early retirement at generally accepted ages include:
- state and municipal employees, including employees of internal bodies (not all, there are exceptions), the length of service must be at least 15 years;
- workers in the mining industry and underground work, 25 years of service;
- some types of work in hazardous industries, it is enough to work for 25 years;
- workers in emergency rescue operations (not all categories), minimum 15 years of experience, for firefighters - 25 years;
- employees in the field of education must have worked for at least 15 years;
- cultural and educational workers, depending on the position and specifics of the work, must accumulate a minimum experience of 15-30 years;
- medical workers of all categories and qualifications. For urban specialists – 30 years, for rural areas – 25 years;
- workers of the sea and river fleet and fishing industry. Women are entitled to early retirement after 50 years of age, and men after 55 years of age;
- military personnel are entitled to a pension after 20 years of continuous service.
This is a list of professions established by law in which a preferential pension is accrued primarily based on continuous service. It is possible to exclude the accumulation of slightly less working time if the employee stopped working for objective reasons, for example, downsizing or liquidation of the organization.
In this case, an early pension is issued. It is important to note that this is considered individually for additional applications.
We will analyze controversial situations
Due to the continued use of the concept, even though it has been abolished, many have difficulty identifying a specific situation. Let's look at the most common questions related to NTS.
Two month
It is stated above that continuity is guaranteed if 30 calendar days have not passed between services. But there are situations for which an exception is allowed, and the period is increased by 2 times. These include:
- dismissal from work in difficult climatic conditions in the northern regions;
- work outside the country (embassy, military service, business trips);
- relief is given to a citizen of another state who carries out labor activities on the territory of the Russian Federation.
There are no more reasons that give the right to increase the period to 60 days. But there are other controversial issues.
90 days
The following can count on relief in the form of an increase in the standard period by 3 times to 90 calendar days:
- people whose spouses are sent to work in another region or city;
- dismissal as a result of job reduction or liquidation of the enterprise.
In these two cases, employees can maintain continuity and return to a new job within 90 days of official termination.
Layoffs
Seniority is retained only if the reason for dismissal was the employee’s desire, layoff or closure of the company. In the case when a person is fired under an article, especially without the right to occupy a similar position, preferential conditions under the NTS are not provided.
Preservation of the profession
For some categories of citizens, the fact of maintaining their profession is important. This applies to:
- employees of educational institutions;
- medical employees;
- military;
- theater and film figures;
- employees of hazardous enterprises and others.
Continuity of experience will be maintained provided that you are hired in a similar field. But the deadlines for finding a new place must still be met.
Other cases
There are situations in which a person can maintain continuity regardless of the number of days without working:
- caring for a child sick with the immunodeficiency virus until he reaches adulthood. Continuity is maintained if a severance agreement is signed at the end of the period of care;
- going back to work after retirement;
- dismissal of a serviceman who has served at least 20 years in the agency.
This concludes the specific situations. For those who do not fall into any category, there is a gap of 30 days from the date of dismissal.
How many days of service is considered continuous?
From the name it follows that continuous experience must be permanent. The law defines the time frame when it remains uninterrupted. Separately, it should be noted that military service and maternity leave are included in continuous service, but some events can spoil it:
- The minimum duration of the unemployed period should be no more than one month in case of voluntary dismissal and up to three months in case of reduction or liquidation of the organization.
- Lack of work for up to a year in certain conditions: if care is needed for a minor child with HIV, when a spouse is transferred to another area, for working pensioners, sometimes for military personnel and veterans.
- Termination upon dismissal of an employee for guilty actions, for example, absenteeism, drunkenness, theft, fraud.
