Ukraine: new provisions adopted to facilitate dismissals in wartime

Since the martial law introduced in March this year (see article n°12971) was not able to take into consideration all labour relations issues in times of war, the Ukrainian parliament – Verkhovna Rada – adopted a bill (7251) on 12 May to supplement and improve several existing laws. The text introduces new grounds for employers to terminate employment contracts, such as the death of an employee or their disappearance, as well as an accelerated dismissal procedure. This is the case when the employer has lost contact with an employee for four months. Dismissal is also justified when the continuation of activities has been rendered impossible by the destruction inflicted by the war. A death certificate or court decision is no longer required, as the purpose of these changes is to eliminate uncertainty in employment relations. However, in order to protect the rights of employees, the suspension of an employment contract must be approved by the military-civilian administration operating in the territory concerned. Due to the state of emergency, the bill specifies that documents may be sent in electronic format. Finally, the text softens some of the provisions of martial law: employers may only increase the weekly working hours to 60 for those involved in “critical infrastructure”. For other companies, normal working hours will be maintained at 40 hours per week.