The concept and content of the draft Law of Ukraine «On Labor» as the future basis of regulation of civilized labor relations: all «pros» and «cons»

Abstract

The article examines the concept and content of the draft Law of Ukraine «On Labor» (2022) from the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which was published on the website of the Ministry of Economy on September 23, 2022. It is argued that in the conditions of war, when on the contrary the role of state regulation of labor relations should be strengthened, the state support of small and medium-sized businesses, especially in the post-war period of economic renewal, in order to ensure at least a minimum level of labor guarantees of employees, is not timely re-codification of labor legislation, it causes negative attitude of the public and experts.
It is justified that the stated goal and goals of the project really correspond to the principles of labor market liberalization, which were introduced into the life of governments of the states after World War II during the so-called «golden thirtieth anniversary». At that time the countries of the world wanted to respect human and civil rights, free market, creation of a single system of health care and social security, insurance of unemployment, consultations of state bodies with the public on issues of social and economic development, proceeding from principles of social dialog, conditions were created for the development of trade union movement against the background of minimal state interference in the regulation of labor relations, respect for private property and its protection. However, the initiators of the project, preparing this document, supported some ideas of modern neo-liberalism (as a state strategy), which results in non-consideration of human rights, first of all labor rights, for the sake of economic reforms, significant decrease of labor standards and attacks on the rights of trade unions with minimal interference of the state. Of course, it is not time to introduce neo-liberalism in the domestic labor market, when millions of people go abroad and go to war.
It is concluded that the project does not adequately meet the goals and strategies of sustainable development of Ukraine, the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU (2014), the goals and priorities of the Decent Work agenda of the ILO for Ukraine for 2020–2024.
It was revealed that this document does not regulate the relationship of social partnership, it does not specify the parties of these relations and their rights and obligations. Professional communication is devoted only to article 16 of the project, which is called «representatives of employees» and is incorrectly located in section II «Labor relations and labor contract», since only employees and employers are parties to labor relations. The proposed project does not contain a word about social dialog, when on the contrary, in modern conditions the Institute of Social Partnership should be supplemented with new norms.
It is argued that the principle of combining the state and contractual regulation of labor relations should be established in the project, which should become the basis for the transition from the previous model of decentralized regulation to the new model of the basic act on labor of the European model with a minimum but sufficient level of state interference in the private sphere of labor law.
It is proposed that the Government develop on the basis of social dialog the draft Labor Code of Ukraine, namely the codified act taking into account the modern legal doctrine of labor law, which should be followed by the modern model of public-legal (state-legal) and private-legal (collective-contractual and individual-contractual) regulation of labor relations.
It is necessary to introduce in the future draft Labor Code of Ukraine those provisions of the draft Law of Ukraine «On Labor» (2022), which correspond to modern conditions of development of Ukraine, its European vector of integration and support the idea of ILO on introduction of concept of decent work within the framework of strategy of sustainable development and goals of sustainable development for Ukraine till 2030.