New Labor Code: what will change for employees and employers

Adopted in 1971, the Labor Code of Ukraine is Soviet in both content and spirit and demonstrates the pronounced dominance of the regulatory function of the paternalistic state in the field of labor relations, which was inherent in the planned socialist economy, in which the state acted as the actual employer in all economic relations.

This is stated in the explanatory note to the draft new Labor Code developed by the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine.

The draft new Labor Code provides for the following changes to the legislation:

1. To define the employment contract as the main source of regulation of individual labor relations. However, the inclusion of terms and conditions in an employment agreement that worsen the employee's position compared to labor law is a gross violation of labor law.

An employment agreement must be concluded in writing.

An agreement concluded in electronic form with an electronic signature based on a qualified public key certificate using electronic communications technology is deemed to be in writing.

Standard forms of an employment agreement shall be approved by the central executive body responsible for the formation and implementation of the state policy in the field of labor.

2. Identify the features of labor relations. Contractual relations, regardless of their name and type, are recognized as labor relations if three or more of the following features are present

• personal performance of work by a person in a particular profession, specialty, qualification, position;
• performance of work by a person in the interests, on behalf of and under the control of another party for whose benefit the work is performed;
• regulation of the labor process, which is permanent and, as a rule, does not provide for the establishment of a person's specific result (volume) of work for a certain period of time;
• performing work at a workplace designated or agreed with the person in whose interests the work is performed, in compliance with the internal labor regulations established by the person;
• organization of working conditions, in particular, provision of means of production (equipment, tools, materials, raw materials, workplace) is provided by the person in whose interests the work is performed;
• systematic payment of remuneration in cash to the person performing the work;
• determination by the person in whose interests the work is performed of the duration of working hours and rest periods;
• reimbursement of travel and other financial expenses related to the performance of work by the person in whose interests the work is performed.

3. Regulation of work with summarized accounting of working time, work of domestic workers.

4. Improving the basic conditions for the realization of the right to vacation.

The following types of leave are established:

♦ annual basic paid vacation and other annual additional paid vacations provided for by law;

♦ leave in connection with education;

♦ social leave:

• ♦ maternity leave;
• parental leave);
• leave for employees who have adopted a child (children);
• childbirth leave;
• leave for employees who have children, adult sons or daughters with disabilities from childhood of subgroup A of group I.

♦ leave without pay.

Annual basic paid leave is granted to employees for a period of at least 28 calendar days for each working year worked.

5. Implementation of new approaches to the settlement of individual labor disputes, in particular through mediation procedures.

6. Disseminate the norms of collective bargaining agreements and contracts.

7. Regulation of supervision over the observance of legislation in the field of labor relations and determination of the procedure for conducting inspection visits.

In addition, the draft act proposes to introduce a new national system for preventing occupational risks based on the principles of risk assessment, control and management, which are the basis for building similar systems in developed countries in Europe and the world, 4 which will facilitate:

The draft act also provides for defining the principles, legal and organizational framework for regulating the procedure and methods of resolving collective labor disputes in Ukraine, introducing a modern mechanism for resolving such disputes through conciliation procedures and labor arbitration, developing the institution of labor mediation, realizing the right of employees and employers to collective action in cases of conflicts of interest, improving the procedure and procedure for holding strikes, balancing the institution of responsibility and the interests of employees and employers