A job is a place where a person spends the majority of his time. This is exactly why it matters to maintain a favorable psychological climate at the workplace. But unfortunately, it isn’t always possible because controversies emerge even in the friendlies of the teams. And while problems inside the team get resolved using relatively simple methods, disputes between an employee and an employer may have mutually negative consequences.
Labor disputes are the conflicts that emerge between a working person with a concluded employment agreement and an employer, concerning the disputes about amending, concluding, or terminating an employment agreement, or the disputes concerning the rights and responsibilities of hired workers while exercising labor activities.
Both the employees who have an employment agreement concluded in compliance with the current legislation and the ones, who have worked without the formal registration of their labor relations in violation of the Labor Code, may be subject to the disputes.
The category of labor disputes is pretty complex due to the lack of laws and regulations that meet contemporary requirements since the fundamental codified statutory instrument regulating labor relations – the Labor Code of Ukraine – was adopted as far back as 1971 by the Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Council) of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Labor disputes
The time of the adoption of the Labor Code being what it is, the document has main socialist and ideological mottos of the communist authorities sealed in it. They stipulate that the state is the sole employer, therefore, the code is essentially not intended to ensure equal rights of the employers and employees of the private enterprises.
Labor relations are also subject to the laws (the Law of Ukraine on Vacations, the Law of Ukraine on Collective Agreements and Contracts) and by-laws; this, however, doesn’t solve the problem of the lack of a unified codified act that would comply with the requirements of the present and provide the same level of protection both for the employers and employees. Given that, an important component of successful proceedings of a labor dispute is the knowledge of the use of the litigation practice that fills in the gaps of the labor legislation and forms a unified position on the resolution of a certain category of the disputes.
Our company and our labor law attorneys have both the knowledge and the experience in the field of resolving labor disputes. Qualified experts are ready to assist you in resolving individual and collective labor disputes, answer any of your questions and come to provide legal aid at any time.
Labor disputes: resolution
The resolution takes place in pre-trial or at trial. City, municipal and district, district, regional city courts, and commissions on labor disputes are authorized to look into such cases.
By the resolution of the general meeting of the staff and with the purpose of settling the disputes that emerge at institutions, enterprises, and organizations with personnel count of at least fifteen workers, the special commission on labor disputes gets established. A ruling of the commission can be appealed in court. Currently, such commissions emerge mainly at large state enterprises.
The main aspect of filing a lawsuit is the procedural jurisdiction of labor disputes. Thus, for instance, the disputes over the dismissal from public service and reinstatement on the job, with the recovery of average earnings for the period of the forced absenteeism, are tried by rules of the administrative legal proceedings. The cases where the respondent is a legal person employer with bankruptcy proceedings instituted against it are tried in the commercial court, where the bankruptcy case against the employer is pending trial. And all the cases where the subject matter is non-property demands of the employees, are tried in local general courts by the rules established in the Code of the Civil Procedure of Ukraine. Article 9 thereof stipulates that the courts try cases that emerge over labor disputes in civil proceedings except for the cases tried in other proceedings.
According to the Code of the Civil Procedure of Ukraine, the disputes may be tried in the writ or simplified proceedings. Writ proceedings are designed to try the cases based on the claims to recover insignificant uncontested amounts of money or where the plaintiff has no knowledge of them being contested.
In particular, according to Article 161 of the Code of the Civil Procedure of Ukraine, the person, who has the right to claim, or the bodies or persons that are legally authorized to go to court in the interest of other persons, can file to be issued a court order. The court order is issued where the claims are filed to recover accrued but unpaid salary and the average earnings for the period of the arrears in payment. At that, in compliance with the Law of Ukraine on Court Fees, plaintiffs in cases of recovering salary and reinstatement on the job, are relieved of paying the court fees in all courts.
Simplified proceedings are designed to try cases that have a quick resolution as a priority. Cases in simplified proceedings are tried in courts by the rules stipulated by the Code for the cases tried in action proceedings with the distinctions determined by the Code of the Civil Procedure of Ukraine.
Thus, when preparing to protect labor rights, not only does an employee need to find proofs and properly justify their position, but also to determine the right court, under the jurisdiction of which a particular category of cases falls. Therefore, in an uncertain situation, we recommend seeking qualified legal assistance from the labor law attorney.
Our attorneys will be glad to consult both the employer and the employee on the issue of registering labor relations in compliance with the current legislation, help resolve any kind of conflict situation on the stage of negotiations, compile a justified bill of complaint, and carry out support counseling on the case in every court.