Salary payment discipline (on disputes about gray wages)

Facts of violation by employers of the requirements provided for in Part 3, 5 of Article 136 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, according to which wages are paid to an employee, as a rule, at the place of performance of their work or transferred to a credit institution specified in the employee’s application, wages are paid directly to the employee, except in cases where another payment method is provided by federal law or an employment contract, may not lead to a violation of the labor rights of employees. Employers, for example, in order to avoid taxes, violate the procedure for paying wages by transferring all or part of the salary to the account of one of the employee’s family members or transfer funds from the personal account of the director, members of his family or another colleague. In such cases, if disputes arise about wages, the court recognizes these funds as structural elements of wages, takes them into account as wages.