On July 1, the Verkhovna Rada adopted in the second reading the draft law “On Amendments to Some Laws of Ukraine on Optimizing Labor Relations” dated April 5, 2022 No. 7251.
The draft law provides for:
• during the time of war or state of emergency, all notices and documents on issues of labor relations, orders of the owner can be kept in electronic form;
• an additional reason for dismissing an employee — the employer cannot provide proper working conditions, since the facilities necessary for the performance of work have been destroyed as a result of hostilities, as well as a special procedure for the dismissal of such employees;
• an additional reason for terminating the employment contract is the employee’s absence from work and absence of information about the reasons for such absence for more than four months;
• elimination of the old legislative loophole on the termination of an employment contract with an employee or a natural person who uses hired labor, in the event of their death, recognition by the court as missing or declared dead;
• settlement of the issue of payment of additional leave to certain categories of citizens at the employer’s expense. In addition, in connection with the increase in the categories of persons who have the right to use this leave, it is proposed to reduce its duration from 14 to 7 calendar days;
• remove the norms that determine the right of an employee to transfer monetary compensation for unused annual vacation days to another enterprise upon transfer to another enterprise;
• payment of monetary compensation for unused days of annual leave, as well as additional leave to employees who have children, which the employee did not receive during his lifetime, to members of his family;
• a clear deadline for payment of salary for the time of vacation — no later than the last day preceding the day the vacation begins;
• do not take into account the period of military service before the leave period;
• the procedure for regulating working time and rest time during the war. The category of employees whose working hours can be increased during the week has been determined. It is proposed to restore the payment mechanism for work on a day off. It was clarified that the introduction of extended working hours is a right and not an obligation of the employer;
• compensation to employees and employers for the sums of money they lost as a result of armed aggression.
The law will enter into force on the day following its publication.
