How to Set Part-Time Daily Hours for an Employee with a Disability in a Retail Store

To set part-time daily hours for an employee with a disability, obtain their request, take medical recommendations into account, and agree on working hours, workdays, breaks, and rest days. Issue an order with a specific schedule, inform the employee, and give the terms to the person responsible for timekeeping and payroll.

Under Article 56 of the Labour Code, part-time work is paid in proportion to the time worked or according to output. At the same time, reasonable accommodation may involve reduced working hours with full pay maintained. Therefore, determine the legal basis for the schedule and its terms before formalizing it. These instructions apply to an adult employee on a standard employment contract in a retail store that is not critical infrastructure, working only during the day within the agreed schedule.

Determine the basis and duration of work

Article 172 of the Labour Code provides for part-time daily or weekly hours to be set for an employee with a disability at their request. Article 56 allows the parties to agree on this arrangement either when hiring or later.

For an ordinary adult employee, normal working hours under Article 50 of the Labour Code may not exceed 40 hours per week. Agree the specific part-time hours with the employee, taking medical recommendations into account. There is no single number of hours that applies to all employees with disabilities.

Separately consider whether reasonable accommodation is needed—changes to working conditions in line with the employee’s needs. Under Article 17-1 of Law No. 875-XII, where the employer determines that it is necessary, such measures may include reduced working hours with pay maintained at the level of the full-time norm, as well as additional breaks for exercise or rest that count as working time. Unjustified refusal to provide reasonable accommodation is prohibited.

Obtain the request and required documents

Ask the employee to state in their request the desired start date, workdays, daily hours, and duration of the arrangement. If the schedule is to have no time limit, state this in the order. The request and corresponding order are the formalization procedure explained by the State Labour Service.

To confirm status, use documents confirming disability: a decision, extract, or other relevant document issued following an assessment of everyday functioning. Medical and Social Expert Commission (MSEC) documents are treated as equivalent to documents issued by expert teams and remain a basis for guarantees for the entire validity period of the MSEC examination certificate, until a scheduled assessment is conducted. Check the document’s validity period and whether the disability-extension provisions in paragraph 3 of Resolution No. 1338 apply. An expired date on the certificate alone does not rule out a statutory extension of disability status. Indefinite disability does not require a scheduled reassessment.

Separately obtain medical recommendations concerning work and the relevant provisions of the individual rehabilitation program. Recommendations resulting from the assessment form part of this program. The employer of a person with a disability is required to implement the individual rehabilitation program.

Compare the recommendations with the work of a shop assistant: its duration, workload, and required breaks. If the proposed schedule conflicts with them, agree on another one before formalizing it. When concluding the contract, observe the prohibition on hiring a person for work that a medical opinion contraindicates for them.

Agree on hours, breaks, and rest days

Discuss each schedule term with the employee. Decide who will keep the store operating during the employee’s breaks and after their workday ends.

• Set specific workdays and the number of working hours per day and week.
• Record the start and end times of work.
• Specify when the break for rest and meals begins and ends.
• Set rest days and the length of the uninterrupted weekly rest period.
• Separately record any additional breaks included in the accommodation terms.

Under Article 66 of the Labour Code, a break for rest and meals may not exceed two hours, is not included in working time and, as a rule, is provided four hours after work begins. Internal labour rules set its start and end times. If the schedule requires an earlier break, take the specific medical recommendations into account.

The general minimum uninterrupted weekly rest period is 42 hours. During martial law, it may be reduced to 24 hours. For this schedule, plan rest in line with medical recommendations; the special minimum does not require reducing the rest period.

Record the schedule in writing

Prepare an order based on the employee’s request. Use the following checklist to plan the formalization:

1. Identify the employee, the date the schedule begins, and its duration, or state that there is no time limit.
2. Record workdays, start and end times, the number of working hours, and breaks.
3. Set the pay terms in line with the chosen legal basis.
4. Align the records with the internal labour rules and work schedule.
5. Inform the employee about working hours, rest, and the features of the schedule. If needed, provide the schedule in an accessible format.

During martial law, the employer determines the start and end of daily work. Exercise this authority in line with the agreed part-time terms and medical recommendations.

If the employer later changes previously agreed essential working conditions, take Article 32 of the Labour Code into account: such a change is permitted in connection with changes in the organization of production and labour. During martial law, the employee must be notified of changes to essential working conditions and pay terms no later than before they take effect. Simply entering a new schedule in the software is not enough.

Illustrative example: four days of five hours

Suppose an employee asks to work part-time under Article 56 of the Labour Code. Their specific medical opinion allows five working hours per day, with a break after three hours of work. The owner and employee agree on this schedule:

That makes 3 + 2 = 5 paid working hours per day. Per week, that is 4 × 5 = 20 hours. The break is not included in these five hours. This is an illustrative schedule, and 20 hours is the result of the agreement in this example. If it is incompatible with the individual employee’s recommendations, agree on a different schedule.

Track actual time and preserve employment rights

Assign someone to maintain the timesheet. Record the hours actually worked, which are the basis for calculating pay. Before payroll, compare the timesheet with the agreed schedule and investigate any discrepancies.

For time-based pay, apply Article 56 of the Labour Code’s rule that pay is proportional to the time actually worked. If working hours have been reduced with full pay maintained as a reasonable accommodation measure, follow those specific terms.

Part-time work does not limit the scope of employment rights. Leave is calculated in calendar days regardless of the schedule, and actual part-time work counts toward the service period for annual basic leave. Do not reduce its duration because the employee works fewer hours.

Work schedules and timekeeping in Torgsoft

To compare the agreed plan with the work actually done, use the work schedule in the Torgsoft «Зарплата та мотивація персоналу» (Payroll and Staff Motivation) option. It shows planned shifts, actual attendance results, time worked, and whether the employee has acknowledged the schedule. You can also plan leave, sick leave, and business trips in the schedule.

Enter the employee’s formalized schedule in the plan and compare it with actual attendance. Before calculating payroll, check the hours and any discrepancies from the plan. The employer takes the provided medical recommendations into account and determines the legal basis for the schedule and pay terms in accordance with Ukrainian law; use schedule data to track compliance with those terms.

Protect health data

Collect only the data needed to confirm status and implement work recommendations. Do not request a complete medical file. Article 7 of Law No. 2297-VI permits processing health data necessary to exercise rights and fulfil legal obligations in employment relationships, provided appropriate protection is in place.

When obtaining documents, inform the employee who controls the data, what information is collected, the purpose of collection, their rights, and the people to whom the data will be disclosed. Restrict access to medical documents and protect them from loss and unauthorized access. In the shared schedule, record working hours and breaks without medical details. A sole proprietor is personally responsible for protecting the data they control.

Legal sources

• Law of Ukraine No. 108/95-VR ‘On Remuneration of Labour’: Article 30, paragraph 2.
• Labour Code of Ukraine No. 322-VIII: Articles 24, 32, 50, 51, 56, 57, 66, 70, 172.
• Law No. 875-XII “On the Fundamentals of Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities in Ukraine”: Articles 2, 5, 17-1, 18.
• Law No. 2136-IX “On the Organization of Labour Relations under Martial Law”: Article 3, paragraph 2; Article 6, paragraphs 4 and 5.
• Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 1338 “Certain Issues Concerning the Introduction of Assessments of a Person’s Everyday Functioning”: paragraph 3 of the Resolution, paragraph 1 of the Assessment Procedure.
• Law No. 2297-VI “On Personal Data Protection”: Articles 6, 7, 12, 24.
• Law No. 504/96-VR “On Leave”: Article 5, paragraph 1; Article 9, paragraph 1, subparagraph 1.
• State Labour Service: formalizing part-time work for an employee with a disability.
• State Labour Service: specifying the number of hours in an order.