On April 25, the parliament of Ukraine adopted in the second (and final) reading draft law No.7731 “On Amendments to the Code of Labor Laws of Ukraine on Establishing Additional Grounds for Termination of an Employment Contract at the Employer’s Initiative and Some Other Issues”.
This law introduced new grounds for terminating an employment contract with an employee. The employer may dismiss an employee if:
• There is a court decision declaring the employee guilty of a crime committed against the foundations of national security of Ukraine (does not apply to cases with exoneration from serving a sentence with a probationary period)
• Non-compliance by the employee with the company rules of conduct.
Under new amendments, rules of conduct may contain provisions, in particular, on:
• provision by employees of information regarding their connection with individuals whose permanent residence (registration) is in the territory of the aggressor state or temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine;
• employees` obligation not to disclose information with limited access, particularly state or commercial secrets.
Establishing rules of conduct with the above-mentioned provisions for key infrastructure and enterprises of strategic importance for the economy and security of Ukraine is mandatory.
So, it means that if, under internal rules of conduct, a key infrastructure worker did not inform an employer about his relatives living in the occupied territories of Ukraine, he/she may be dismissed.
The lawmakers aimed to impose clauses on dismissing collaborationists who work at the key infrastructure. However, LI lawyers believe that the wording of the dismissal grounds is ambiguous. It is not clear what “connections with individuals” mean – whether relatives, communication with colleagues, etc. Many people in the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine have relatives/friends who cannot leave the territories occupied by Russia for various reasons. Moreover, the law does not specify how the employer should use the received information from the employee.
