New criteria by the State Labor Service for company’s risk assessing

From now on, the frequency of scheduled inspections for compliance with labor laws will be determined in accordance with new criteria approved by Decree No. 223 adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on February 06, 2019 (Decree No. 223 Approving the Criteria for Assessing the Degree of Risk Arising From Business Activities and Determining the Frequency of Scheduled Inspections Conducted by the State Authority Monitoring Compliance with Labor Laws, Industrial Safety, Occupational Health, Handling Industrial Explosives, Employment Requirements, Employment Requirements for Disabled People, Measures from the State Mining Supervision Agency on Labor Issues (further “Decree No. 223”)).

Decree No. 223 has approved the following frequency for scheduled inspections:

• No more than once in 2 years for high risk business entities;
• No more than once in 3 years for medium risk business entities;
• No more than once in 5 years for low risk business entities.

Decree No. 223 also sets out the following criteria for determining how often scheduled inspections should be conducted:

1) violation of employment laws;

2) in case of employment of stateless persons and foreign nationals who are awarded the status of refugee based on such employment in the 2 years preceding the year in which an inspection is to be conducted;

3) violation of laws on employment of disabled people;

4) if a business entity has received state aid in the form of tax benefit, reimbursable and gratuitous financial aid, special-purpose loan, grants funded by administrative sanctions and fines received by the state budget for non-compliance with workplace standards for disabled people.

The following common events entailing a risk of negative consequences qualify as risk zones:

• Unlawful hiring of foreign nationals or stateless persons;
• Incomplete payment of wages to foreign nationals and stateless persons;
• Violation of the procedure for mass layoff of employees;
• Groundless rejection to hire citizens with additional guarantees for employment assistance;
• Discriminatory job advertising (recruitment);
• Allowing employees to work with no proper documentation;
• Failure to provide employment to disabled people;
• Non-payment of taxes and other mandatory payments accrued in connection with wages;
• Non-payment of administrative sanctions for violation of  workplace standards for disabled people.  

The lawyers at Accountor Ukraine have extensive experience in labor law and look forward to advising you on any labor law issues you may have.