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Publication date: 21.04.2024
active and purposeful military lawyer with more than 4 years of experience
In the letter dated June 10, 2022 No. 4712-06/36178-09, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine clarified some issues of labor legislation.
In accordance with the first part of Article 19 of the Law of Ukraine dated November 15, 1996 No. 504/96-VR "On Vacations" (hereinafter - Law No. 504) and Article 1821 of the Labor Code of Ukraine (hereinafter - Labor Code) to one of the parents who have two or more children under the age of 15, or a child with a disability, or who adopted a child, a mother (father) of a person with a disability from childhood of subgroup A I group, a single mother, a father of a child or a person with a disability from childhood subgroup A I group, who brings up them without a mother (including in the case of a long-term stay of the mother in a medical institution), as well as a person who has taken into custody a child or a person with a disability since childhood of the subgroup A of the I group, or one of the adoptive parents is granted annual additional paid leave of 10 calendar days days without taking into account holidays and non-working days (Article 73 of the Labor Code).
There is no definition of the term "single mother" in the labor legislation. At the same time, according to paragraph 9 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Ukraine dated November 6, 1992 No. 9 "On the practice of consideration of labor disputes by courts", a single mother should be considered a woman who is not married and whose child's birth certificate does not contain an entry about the child's father or the record about the father is made in the prescribed manner at the direction of the mother; widow; another woman who raises and supports the child alone.
The legislation does not define such a category as "another woman raising a child alone."In our opinion, it is appropriate to include, in particular, a divorced woman in this category of women; a woman who raises a child without a father, including a woman who gave birth to a child without being married, and at the same time the father recognized the child; a woman who got married, but her child is not adopted by her new husband, because the child has a father.
According to Article 141 of the Family Code of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as the Code), the mother and father have equal rights and responsibilities towards the child, regardless of whether they were married to each other. Divorce between parents, their living separately from the child does not affect the scope of their rights and does not release them from their obligations towards the child.
It should be noted that Article 157 of the Code specifies that the issue of raising a child is decided jointly by the parents. The parent who lives separately from the child is obliged to participate in his upbringing and has the right to personal communication with him.
Article 158 of the Code stipulates that upon the application of the child's mother or father, the guardianship authority shall determine the methods of participation in the child's upbringing and communication with the parent who lives separately from the child.
The decision on this is made by the guardianship authority based on the study of the parents' living conditions, their attitude towards the child, and other significant circumstances.
The right to additional social leave on the basis of "single mother" also depends on the age of the child. According to Article 19 of Law No. 504, the age of children is only for such a category as "one parent who has two or more children under the age of 15". The age of a child of a single mother (father) is not established by Law No. 504, so the general norms of the law should be followed.Thus, according to Article 1 of the Law of Ukraine "On Childhood Protection" and Article 2 of the Law of Ukraine "On State Assistance to Families with Children", a child is a person under the age of 18 (of legal age) if, according to the law applicable to him, he does not acquire the rights of an adult earlier.
We also note that the legislation does not define restrictions on the mother's right to additional social leave depending on the fact of receiving child support.
Currently, the current legislation does not define a specific list of documents that a single mother should present to confirm her status and receive additional social leave.
Therefore, in order to confirm the right to the specified leave, the employer must present any officially drawn up, executed and certified document confirming the absence of the father's participation in the upbringing of the child.
The employer makes the decision to grant the specified social leave, taking into account the submitted documents.
