Increased leave, paternity leave, and combating workplace mobbing - a draft of the new Labor Code has been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada

A draft Labor Code that introduces amendments to a number of Laws of Ukraine has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada. In particular, it provides for extending the duration of leave, introducing parental leave for men, and combating psychological terror in the workplace. This was reported by UNN.

Details

According to the explanatory note, the purpose of draft law No. 16010, or the draft Labor Code of Ukraine, is to de-Sovietize labor legislation, regulate individual and collective labor relations based on the principles of freedom and equality, ensure decent work, and implement international standards for regulating labor relations into national legislation.

The Labor Code of Ukraine, adopted in 1971, is Soviet both in content and in spirit and demonstrates a clearly pronounced dominance of the regulatory function of the paternalistic state in the sphere of labor relations, which was characteristic of a planned socialist economy, under which the state was the actual employer in all economic relations. The current Code was developed with a focus on an industrial economy and the existence of large systemic enterprises that were the flagships of the economy. Under current conditions, when the number of workers in the production sector has decreased by more than threefold since 2000, there is an urgent need to adapt labor legislation to the needs of new relations and new sectors of the economy, which absorb the released labor force and adhere to a different philosophy of labor relations

It is also noted that attempts to adopt a new Labor Code over the past 20 years have been insufficiently effective because of the unchanged basic principles on which Ukrainian labor legislation is based.

In addition, it is noted that a characteristic feature of modern labor law is that it includes a significant number of subordinate regulatory legal acts. They contain numerous provisions that often conflict with the provisions of acts of higher legal force.

Such "labor bureaucracy" significantly complicates the application of labor legislation both for employers and for the protection of employees’ rights. Thus, the Code is a mixture of legal provisions adopted under different historical and economic conditions, most of which are outdated and cannot adequately regulate modern labor relations

The new Code also provides for increasing the minimum annual paid leave from 24 to 28 calendar days, and extending leave related to the birth and upbringing of children to men.

In addition, it specifically provides for strengthening the protection of employees from discrimination, mobbing, and harassment in the workplace. The Code regulates modern forms of employment: remote and home-based work, as well as work with an unfixed schedule.

We remind you

The draft new Labor Code proposes legally enshrining employees’ right not to respond to work-related phone calls, messages in messengers, or emails outside the established working hours.