Publication date: 16.04.2024
active and purposeful military lawyer with more than 4 years of experience
Dismissal of an employee without two weeks' notice during martial law
The Eastern Interregional Department of the State Labor Service of Ukraine informs that by the decision of the Valkiv District Court of the Kharkiv Region dated 15.12.2022 in case No. 615/1225/22, the employment relationship between the employee and the company was terminated due to the fact that the enterprise was located on a temporarily occupied territory
In this situation, with the beginning of a full-scale invasion, the enterprise found itself in temporarily occupied territory. For the same reasons, the company actually suspended its work, did not carry out economic activity, wages were not accrued and were not paid. There were no relevant documents on the suspension of activity or layoffs at the enterprise.
The employee herself, due to the lack of earnings and the need to find a job, considered it necessary to terminate the employment contract, with which she turned to the management of the LLC, wrote a resignation letter, which she sent by mail and Viber, but the letter was returned due to the expiration of the storage period , and the application for dismissal was not considered.
Such actions of the employer are illegal, which affected the psychological state of the employee, since the latter did not have the ability to independently dispose of the right to work and choose the place of work, could not provide the family with money, which naturally worsened the material situation.The court noted that the Law of Ukraine dated March 15, 2022 No. 2136-IX "On the Organization of Labor Relations in the Conditions of Martial Law" (hereinafter Law No. 2136) defines, among other things, the peculiarities of the labor relations of employees of all enterprises, institutions, and organizations in Ukraine regardless of from the form of ownership, type of activity and industry affiliation, as well as persons who work under an employment contract concluded with natural persons during the period of martial law introduced in accordance with the first part of Article 1 of the Law of Ukraine dated May 12, 2015 No. 389-VIII "On the legal regime of martial law".
Article 4 of Law No. 2136 establishes the specifics of termination of an employment contract at the initiative of the employee, namely in connection with the conduct of hostilities in the areas where the enterprise, institution, organization is located, and the existence of a threat to the life and health of the employee who may terminate an employment contract on his own initiative within the term specified in his application (except for cases of forced involvement in socially beneficial works under martial law, involvement in the performance of work on critical infrastructure facilities).
Therefore, in connection with the conduct of hostilities in the areas where the enterprise is located, and due to a threat to life and health, the employee may terminate the employment contract on his own initiative without a two-week notice period, as provided for in Article 38 of the Labor Code.In addition, the employee provided evidence indicating that the employment relationship between the parties has actually been terminated, but the procedure for terminating the employment contract has not been completed, the employee does not have the opportunity to terminate the employment contract in any other way, except by going to court, since her application for Voluntary dismissal was left unanswered. In order to restore the employee's right to work, the court found it necessary to terminate employment relations with the enterprise.
