Savin, V.T. On the issue of independency and material responsibility of the parties to a labor contract as a type of legal responsibility

Abstract: The article includes analysis of the necessity of study of material responsibility in the sphere of labor law and its place within the system of legal responsibility in Russian law as a whole. It includes analysis of various points of view of legal scholars, including those specializing in labor law. Some of such scholars single out material responsibility of employees and employers as independent types of legal responsibility, while other scholars view it as a part of civil law, disciplinary or labor law responsibility, which leads to its assimilation within the above-mentioned types of responsibility. Therefore, to some extent all of those scholars fail to recognize material responsibility as an independent type of legal responsibility, which may have negative influence upon the legal practice in this sphere. The article contains detailed basis for distinguishing material responsibility under the norms of labor law from other types of legal responsibility, and criticism of abovementioned approaches to this type of responsibility. Based on the above, the author comes to a conclusion that material responsibility of the parties to the labor contract is bilateral, it has general and specific characteristic features, and it should be regarded as a complete, indivisible legal category within labor law, and as an independent type of responsibility in Russian law.

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