There are some key differences between UK and Ukrainian employment law.
UK | Ukraine | |
Main piece of employment legislation | Employment Rights Act 1996 | The Labor Code of Ukraine |
Common law or codified? | Common Law | Codified |
Average working week | 35-40 hours | 40 hours |
Statutory annual leave | 28 days including bank holidays from day 1 | 24 days plus bank holidays |
National Living Wage/Minimum Wage | £10.42 (23y/o and above) | 40.46 UAH |
Statutory Sick Pay | Statutory minimum of £109.40 a week First 3 days do not apply | Employer pays for first 5 days and then rest covered by Ukrainian State Social Security Fund |
Paid maternity leave | Up to 39 weeks | 126 days |
There are three different types of employment status:
• Employees
• Worker
• Self-Employed
Employees are individuals who are 'gainfully employed' under a contract of service with general earnings including salary and wages. They have the highest level of employment rights.
Workers are individuals who work under a contract of employment or any other contract (express or implied) and personally carries out work or services for an employer. They do not have the same rights as employees.
Contractors/Consultants/Freelancers provide services in exchange for payment (invoice). As they are self-employed, they do not enjoy the same rights as employees and the only legal duty employers owe them is not to discriminate.
Employees and workers have different rights.
Employees have more rights than workers do.
Here are a few examples of the different types of rights employees and workers have.
Annual leave.
•Employees and workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks' (or 28 days') minimum of annual leave. This includes bank holidays and public holidays.
•This leave is paid at the employee's or worker's usual day rate.
•If you work part-time, annual leave is apportioned on a pro-rata basis. For example, if you work 3 days a week you will have 16.8 days' annual leave.
•Employers can agree to a higher rate of annual leave, for example 25 days plus bank holidays.
•Any accrued annual leave i.e. annual leave you have not taken in that specific holiday year, is paid in lieu on termination.
•If you do not take your annual leave within your employer's holiday year, it may be lost. However, some companies have carry over provisions - this means you can carry over any (or some) unused holiday days into the next holiday year.
•The rules around annual leave are set out in the Working Time Regulations 1998.
Sickness.
•If you are absent from work for at least 4 consecutive days, including weekends and non-working days, you are entitled to statutory sick pay ('SSP').
•SSP is not payable on the first 3 days of absence.
•You can receive SSP for up to 28 weeks or a series of absences - these absences cannot be more than 8 weeks apart.
•SSP will stop after 3 years in the case of a series of absences.
•The current rate for SSP is £109.40 per week, for up to 28 weeks.
•SSP is only paid on days the employee usually works, these are known as 'qualifying days'. For example, if you work 3 days a week and are off for 4 or more days, you will only receive SSP on the 3 days you work.
•Employers can offer a higher contractual sick pay rate to employees, but this cannot be lower than the statutory minimum.
Discriminations.
You cannot discriminate against someone who has a 'protected characteristic'. There are nine protected characteristics:
•Age
•Disability
•Gender Reassignment
•Marriage and Civil Partnership
•Pregnancy and Maternity
•Race
•Religion or Belief
•Sex
•Sexual Orientation
There are four types of discrimination:
•Direct Discrimination
•Indirect Discrimination
•Harassment
•Victimisation
Direct Discrimination: You are treated less favourably because: •you have a protected characteristic OR •are thought to have a protected characteristic OR •associate with someone who has a protected characteristic | Indirect Discrimination: A provision, criterion or practice is applied which disadvantages people with a protected characteristic |
Harassment: You receive unwanted conduct relating to your protected characteristic and it: •violates your dignity OR •creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive working environment | Victimisation: Someone subjects you to a detriment and they do this because: •you performed a ‘protected act’ OR • they believe you performed a protected act OR •they believe you may do a protected act before the detriment |
A ‘protected act’ is defined in the Equality Act 2010 as:
·bringing proceedings under the EqA 2010 (either against the person now victimising or against anyone else)
·giving evidence or information in connection with any race proceedings under the EqA 2010
Grievances.
A grievance is where you formally raise an issue(s) to your employer.
You should try to resolve the issue(s) with your employer informally first, before submitting a formal written grievance.
There should be a grievance process in place at work for you to follow. This allows you and your employer to resolve the issue(s) in a fair way.
These are the elements needed for the process to be fair:
employers and employees should deal with issues promptly, including not unreasonably delaying meetings or decisions
employers and employees should act consistently
employers should carry out any necessary investigations to establish the facts
employees should be given the opportunity to put their case/explain their grievance before any decisions are made
employees should be able to be accompanied
employees should have the right of appeal against any formal decision made.
A typical grievance process will look like this:
•Letting your employer know about the grievance
•Meeting to discuss the grievance
•Investigation to establish the facts
•Outcome
•Chance to appeal if you're not satisfied with the outcome
Disciplinaries.
A disciplinary is where there is a misconduct or capability issue (such as poor performance).
Similar to grievances, employers should try to resolve the issue(s) with the employee informally first, before starting a formal disciplinary process.
The same rules of fairness apply to disciplinaries, with the addition of the employer informing the employee of the problem.
A typical disciplinary meeting should look like this:
•The employer should establish the facts of the case
•Investigation
￭if there is a misconduct issue, different people should carry out the investigation and disciplinary hearing
•Inform the employee of the problem/meeting to discuss the problem
￭employee can be accompanied
•Outcome
•Opportunity to appeal
Ending your employment.
Methods of termination:
•dismissal
•resignation
•redundancy
•settlement agreement
Termination payments:
•payment in lieu of notice
•accrued holiday
•pension
•other benefits
Restrictive Covenants:
•non-compete
•non-dealing
•non-solicitation
Clauses that survive termination.
Useful sources of infortmation:
• ACAS website: https://www.acas.org.uk/
• Citizens Advice Bureau: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/
• Gov.uk:
• Minimum wage rate Minimum wage rates for 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• Overviews of workers’ rights Overviews of workers’ rights - Search - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)