ENCOURAGEMENT AT WORK UNDER THE LABOUR LAW OF UKRAINE

Abstract

Nowadays the problem of improving the legal regulation of encouragements in the labour legislation of Ukraine is especially topical, as the modern realities require the wider application of motivation and encouragement means to keep the most skilled employees. The Labour Code of Ukraine stipulates the requirement to the employees for performing their job responsibilities conscientiously. Analysing the norms of the Labour Code of Ukraine, we can conclude that encouragements are welfare of material or moral nature, benefits and privileges by which the employer marks the employee’s labour merits. At the same time, the Labour Code of Ukraine does not contain legal consolidation of the “labour merit” concept. Article 139 of the Labour Code of Ukraine consolidates the employee’s obligation to work honestly and conscientiously, timely and accurately to follow the order of the owner or its authorized body. However, scientists do not have a consensus if any conscientious performance of the task, within or exceeding, is legal ground to apply the encouragement means or there should be any achievements at work (increase in productivity, innovation, etc.), success at work. Thus, since merit is considered as a ground to apply the encouragement, the concept of labour merit needs to be legally specified. It is concluded that in order to motivate effectively the employees in the form of encouragement, it should be transparent and timely. To ensure the transparency, it is necessary to determine clearly the types of encouragements, grounds and procedure of their application in local regulations of the enterprise, as well as, to determine the indicators of work, according to which the employee is entitled to some type of encouragement. It is necessary to formalize the legal grounds and conditions of the encouragement, so that the employer is not guided by its own wishes. After all, based on the provisions of legislative acts, encouragement of the employee is a right, not an obligation of the employer (Article 144 of the Labour Code). So, it should decide for itself the expediency of applying (or not applying) encouragements to the particular employee. For timeliness, it is important to encourage employees not only on the days of professional holidays “for good”, but every day to see a human of work. We share the position of those scholars who propose to separate the appropriate chapter in the Labour Code “Encouragements at Work”, which will increase the role of encouragements in regulation of the labour relations.

Keywords

• encouragement
• labour merit
• conscientious performance of job responsibilities
• grounds to apply the encouragements
• types of encouragements