Yesterday, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted in the second reading a draft law that will allow employers to fire employees for keeping silent about their connections with people in the occupied territories or in the Russian Federation.
Employers will have a new reason for dismissing employees - employees' failure to notify the employer of information regarding their existing connections with natural persons located in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. Thus, the People's Deputies of Ukraine voted as a whole draft law 7731 on amendments to the Labor Code of Ukraine regarding the establishment of additional grounds for terminating an employment contract at the initiative of the employer and some other issues. The draft law was registered back in 2022 by a group of People's Deputies from the "Servant of the People" faction.
By this law, Part 1 of Art. 40 of the Labor Code was supplemented with new grounds for terminating the employment contract by the employer. In addition to the entry into force of a court verdict by which an employee was convicted (except for release from serving a sentence with probation) for committing a crime against the foundations of national security of Ukraine, the grounds for dismissal will also be the employee's failure to comply with the rules of conduct at the enterprise, institution, organization in part of the provisions provided for in 2 of Article 142 of the Criminal Code.
In turn, in the new version of Article 142 of the Labor Code, it will be determined that rules of conduct at an enterprise, institution, organization, which contain provisions, in particular, about:
- provision by employees of information regarding their existing connections with natural persons whose place of permanent residence (residence, registration) is located in the territory of the aggressor state or the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine;
-employees' obligation not to disclose information with limited access, in particular, information constituting a state or commercial secret, as well as the conditions of working with confidential information.
Establishing rules of conduct at enterprises, institutions, organizations that are of strategic importance for the economy and security of the state, and/or objects or operators of critical infrastructure is mandatory.
At the same time, as noted in the Supreme Administrative Court of the Republic of Ukraine, the absence of a legally established procedure for bringing an employee to disciplinary responsibility for committing the offense specified in the draft, as well as the employer's authority to conduct a proper investigation, does not comply with the provisions of Part 2 of Article 19 of the Constitution of Ukraine, and therefore may lead to to the unlimited interpretation of this norm in law enforcement practice and violation of the rights of employees.
The law also provides for the addition of Part 1 of Article 46 of the Code with a new ground for the employer's suspension of an employee from work, namely: "Conducting an official inspection by the employer, which is included in the list of state-owned objects of strategic importance for the economy and security of the state, and/ or critical infrastructure facilities or operators".
However, as noted by the HRU of the Republic of Belarus, the Labor Code does not contain a definition of the term "service check", and the project does not specify specific issues, which can be checked by the employer and result in the employee's dismissal from work.
