Publication date: 17.05.2024
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The Supreme Court satisfied the position of the State Department of Labor in the Odesa region regarding the legality of the resolution on the imposition of a fine in the amount of more than 4 million hryvnias
In the period from January 29, 2019 to February 1, 2019, the chief state inspectors of the Main Department of State Labor in Odesa region (hereinafter - the Main Department), in accordance with Article 259 of the Labor Code of Ukraine (hereinafter - Labor Code), part three of Article 34 of the Law of Ukraine " On Local Self-Government in Ukraine" of May 21, 1997 No. 280/97-VR, Clauses 19 and 31 of the Procedure for State Control of Compliance with Labor Legislation, approved by CMU Resolution No. 295 of April 26, 2017, an inspection visit was made to Odesa Yeast LLC » regarding compliance with the latest requirements of labor legislation.
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According to the results of the inspection in February 2019, an act was drawn up, which established that the Company, in violation of the requirements of paragraph 2 of Article 29 of the Labor Code, did not familiarize the employees with the rules of the internal labor regulations and the collective agreement; in violation of the requirements of the second part of Article 97 of the Labor Code and the first part of Article 15 of the Law of Ukraine "On Remuneration" of March 24, 1995 No. 108/95-VR did not agree on the issue of remuneration with the elected body of the primary trade union organization (representative of the labor collective), representing the interests of the majority of employees, in violation of the requirements of the third part of Article 24 of the Labor Code, allowed employees to work without concluding an employment contract drawn up by an order or order of the owner or a body authorized by him, and used the labor of hired workers without proper registration.Taking into account the content of the specified contracts, it can be seen that the works under these contracts are not legally independent, the specifics of the works provide for their performance by full-time employees of the enterprise due to the fact that these works involve the performance of dangerous works, and also refer to those that have a permanent or systematic nature of performance.
It should be noted that the main feature that distinguishes civil-law relations from labor relations is that labor legislation regulates the process of organizing labor activities. According to the civil law contract, the process of organizing labor activity remains outside its boundaries, the purpose of the contract is to obtain a certain material result.
On February 4, 2019, the chief state inspectors of the Main Directorate drew up an order to eliminate the detected violations, which obliges the plaintiff to eliminate the detected violations.
During the re-checking by the officials of the Main Department, the next inspection visit was carried out, as a result which established non-fulfillment by the Company of the order to eliminate the identified violations.
According to the results of state supervision, on the basis of the act of inspection visit, the Main Department adopted a resolution on imposing a fine in the amount of UAH 4,006,080.
Considering such a decision on the imposition of a fine to be illegal and unfounded, the Society appealed to the court with this lawsuit.
The decision of the Odesa District Administrative Court dated November 20, 2019 rejected the claim.
In the appeal, the Society, referring to the violation by the court of first instance of the norms of substantive and procedural law, requests to cancel the court decision adopted in the case and to issue a new ruling on the satisfaction of the claim.
By the ruling of the Fifth Administrative Court of Appeal dated March 18, 2020, the decision of the Odesa District Administrative Court dated November 20, 2019 was canceled and a new decision was adopted in the case, which satisfied the lawsuit of the Odesa Yeast Limited Liability Company.
Disagreeing with the decisions of the courts of the second instance, the Main Department of State Labor appealed the given decision to the Supreme Court of Ukraine as part of the panel of judges of the cassation administrative court and proved the legality of the actions and the legality of the decision on the imposition of a fine.
The panel of judges of the cassation administrative court came to the conclusion that the court of first instance correctly noted that the challenged resolution on the imposition of a fine by authorized officials of the Main Directorate was issued quite legitimately, substantiated and taking into account the prescriptions of the current legislation of Ukraine, and therefore, there are no legally provided grounds for satisfying the claim.
"Odesa Yeast" LLC is obliged to pay a fine in the amount of UAH 4,006,080 (four million six thousand eighty hryvnias 00 kopecks)
