On 19 July 2022, Law No. 2352-IX of Ukraine "On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on Optimization of Labor Relations" dated 1 July 2022 ("Law") came into effect. Among other things, the Law introduces certain amendments into the labor laws and clarifies some provisions of the special laws applicable under martial law.
Key changes
- Abolition of the employer's obligation to pay the average salary to employees summoned to the army
- Introduction of the following new termination grounds: (i) an employee's death or their recognition by a court as missing or dead; (ii) an employee's absence from work, including the absence of any information about the reasons for such absence; (iii) the employer's inability to provide the employee with relevant work, resulting from destruction of the necessary means of production, the employer's property, etc. caused by hostilities
- Abolition of the possibility to transfer the monetary compensation for unused days of vacation if the employee transfers to another company
- The possibility that an employer must pay its employees the salary due for the vacation period within the term defined in the collective bargaining agreement or the employment agreement
- Limitation of the period during which the employer is obliged to pay the average salary to a terminated employee for failure to pay all employment-related payments to such employee upon termination to six months
- Establishment of the three-month limitation period for cases related to payment of the termination-related amounts
- Clarification of some provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On Organization of Labor Relations During Martial Law" (e.g., increase of the maximum working hours to 60 hours per week (or 40 hours per week in the case of reduced working hours) exclusively for employees working at critical infrastructure facilities, changes in the rules applicable to granting annual vacation, and clarification of the procedure on suspension of the employment agreement).
We recommend that employers in Ukraine take into account the above legislative changes and closely monitor any subsequent labor-related developments.
