Following the extension of the state of martial law in Ukraine until 25 April 2022, the Parliament of Ukraine adopted a new Law “On Regulation of the Labour Relations during Martial Law” on 15 March 2022 to address the challenges employers and employees are currently facing.
Labour relations in Ukraine will continue to be primarily regulated by the Labour Code of Ukraine subject to the special provisions set out by the Law.
According to the Law, certain special terms will be in place during the period of martial law, including the following key ones:
- probation periods may be established for any category of newly hired employees;
- employees may be transferred to different work for the period of martial law and without two-month prior notice (except for the transfer to an area of active military actions, which is prohibited) and without their prior consent if the transfer is conducted for the prevention or liquidation of consequences of military actions or other life-threatening circumstances;
- employees of companies located in areas where military actions take place may terminate employment on their own initiative without a standard two-week notice period (except for employees engaged in community service or working at critical infrastructure objects);
- in case of the physical liquidation of a company due to the destruction of production, organisational or technical facilities or assets, the employer may dismiss employees with ten-day prior written notice;
- employers may dismiss their employees during temporary disability or vacation time (except for maternity or child-care leave);
- longer maximum working hours per week (up to 60 hours per week) as well as shorter weekend durations may be established by employers;
- employers may refuse to provide an employee with vacation (except for maternity and child-care leave) if such an employee is involved in work at critical infrastructure objects;
- it is possible to suspend labour agreements due to military aggression (the new mechanisms, which provide for temporary termination by employer and employee to provide and perform work, does not entail the termination of the employment agreement);
- employers may suspend payment of remuneration until the company resumes its core business activity if the remuneration cannot be paid on time due to military actions;
- management of HR documents and their archival storage is maintained during martial law at the discretion of the employer.
The Law is pending the President’s signature, and will come into force on the date following the date of its official publication.
For more information, contact your regular CMS advisors or our local experts: Maria Orlyk, Olga Belyakova.
Social Media cookies collect information about you sharing information from our website via social media tools, or analytics to understand your browsing between social media tools or our Social Media campaigns and our own websites. We do this to optimise the mix of channels to provide you with our content. Details concerning the tools in use are in our privacy policy.