New employment regulations applicable during martial law in Ukraine

In Ukraine, the parliament has adopted a set of regulations applicable during martial law, the latter having been prolonged until 25 April, 2022,. The Law on Employment Relationships during Martial Law came into force on 24 March, 2022. The general provisions of labor law will be applicable to employment relations in Ukraine as long as they were not regulated otherwise by this special law.

Examples of the several new regulations currently applicable in Ukraine are:

• Employers are free to choose the form of employment agreement with employees as long as there is mutual consent. Thus, the mandatory form of a written employment agreement has been waived for the time being.
• A probation period has been introduced for any type of employee. This would allow to employ temporary displaced persons within Ukraine as well as to find new employees at short notice.
• Employers may enter into fixed term employment agreements for the duration of martial law or for the time needed to replace temporarily absent employees. This special regulation allows to employ new staff in order to replace internally or externally displaced employees, those who are military drafted or any other temporarily missing employee.
• Unlike during times of peace, a termination of the employment can also take place during the employee’s sick leave or vacation time, whereas the first working day would be the termination date for such employee (exceptions apply to maternity leave as well as to the parental leave during the first three years of the child's life).
• Special regulations will apply to a termination of the employment during martial law.
• Employers are entitled to suspend an employee, with the aggressor state’s (in this case the russian federation) obligation, to undertake the employment related payments.
• An increase of the working hours up to 60 hours per week and the introduction of temporary waivers to some of the employee’s guarantees and freedoms is permitted during martial law.

Even though there are still some unresolved practical issues, the introduction of special employment regulations under the current circumstances, namely the russian military aggression against Ukraine, is of utmost importance.