For an employer, an employee’s email with “resignation” in the subject line is not only an HR signal but also a question of evidentiary support. The employer must confirm that the employee genuinely expressed their intention to terminate the employment contract and correctly determine the date on which the resignation was received. This is especially important because the start of the notice period depends on a properly executed document.
Why Email Does Not Always Replace a Resignation
The text of an email, a scan, or an attached file sent by email does not in itself qualify as a written resignation. Ordinary email does not always make it possible to reliably confirm who sent the document, how it was executed, or whether the date stated should be treated as the date on which the employee submitted the resignation.
An electronic resignation may be accepted if the employer uses personnel electronic document management (кадровый электронный документооборот, КЭДО), a company system for creating, signing, and exchanging HR documents electronically. In that case, the HR department must ensure that the document was created and signed in accordance with the procedure established for electronic interaction within the company. Not every message received at a corporate email address is a personnel electronic document management document.
How to Establish Internal Controls
The employer should determine in advance how HR documents will be exchanged with employees. The employer’s local policies must provide for electronic interaction, and the employee must be connected to the personnel electronic document management system in use. This allows the HR department to avoid deciding on the acceptable form of a resignation on an ad hoc basis after receiving a disputed email.
The practical process starts with checking the channel through which the document was received. If the resignation was prepared through personnel electronic document management and signed in the prescribed manner, it may be treated as the basis for further HR procedures. If, however, the employee sent an ordinary email, a message in a messenger, or a scan without verified electronic signing, it is safer to request the paper original or offer the employee the option of submitting the resignation through personnel electronic document management.
The Receipt Date Affects HR Deadlines
As a general rule, an employee must give the employer at least two weeks’ notice of resignation. This period starts on the day following the employer’s receipt of a properly executed resignation. Therefore, the date of an email or the date on which an informal message was received should not automatically become the starting point.
Employees during a probationary period are generally subject to a three-day notice period, while the head of an organization is subject to a one-month notice period. The HR department must record the date on which the correct document was received and use it in its calculations. If there are doubts about the form of the resignation, it is better not to treat an informal email as the start of the notice period.
Risks of an Incorrect Decision and Foreign Employees
A dismissal order issued solely on the basis of an informal email may become the subject of a dispute. The employee may challenge either the fact that the resignation was submitted or the date on which it was sent. If the dismissal is found to be unlawful, the employee may be reinstated, awarded average earnings for the period of forced absence, and create other costs for the employer.
Foreign nationals and stateless persons are subject to the same rules for executing a resignation as other employees working under an employment contract. Migration status does not eliminate the requirements concerning the form of the document. At the same time, after determining the correct date of termination of the contract, the employer should separately check the related migration notifications and the deadlines for submitting them.
What to Check
- Check whether the company has implemented personnel electronic document management.
- Verify whether the employer’s adopted policies provide for electronic interaction with employees.
- Make sure that the employee is connected to the personnel electronic document management system and that the resignation was created and signed in the prescribed manner.
- Do not automatically treat an ordinary email, a message in a messenger, or a scan without verified electronic signing as a resignation.
- If personnel electronic document management is not used or the document was not properly executed, request a paper resignation bearing the employee’s signature or ask the employee to submit it through personnel electronic document management.
- Record the date on which the properly executed resignation was received, and only then calculate the notice period.
- When dismissing a foreign employee, separately check the migration notifications and the deadlines for submitting them.