Dismissal of an employee While Suspension of employment contract

Employers have many questions about the possibility of suspending an employment contract. We have already told you how to suspend an employment contract, and you can read about it here. But what to do if an employee decided to quit during this period was not clear before. Recently, the Ministry of Economy published a letter of clarification dated 17.05.2022 № 4706-06/25215-07. Also, the State Labor Inspectorate in turn also provided clarification in a letter dated 09.05.2022, № 1922/4/4.1-ZV-22a.

Suspension of the employment contract

The suspension of the employment contract doesn't mean a termination of the employer-employee relationship. It means that the relationship is paused. The employee does not perform any work and the employer does not pay him/her any money.
The Ministry of Economy in its commentary of 23.03.2022 noted that although the employer does not have to pay the employee's salary when the employment contract is suspended, but must fix the amount of wages and compensation payments that the employee could receive during this time. And after Ukraine wins the war, such payments should be compensated by the aggressor country.

Dismissal of employees

As long as employees have not received future payments, they must look for other sources of income, so a lot of people think about quitting, because layoffs are not forbidden during wartime. And here the question arises, what benefits are provided for such workers?
The Ministry of Economy says that despite the martial law, the employer must make all payments provided by law when terminating the employment of an employee and do it within the period prescribed by law.

What payments we are talking about:

• Wage debts for the period prior to the day of suspension
• Payments that should have been accrued and paid before the day of suspension, but for some reason have not been paid
• Сompensation for unused annual leave and additional leave for having children

The employer does not have to pay the employee the wages he did not receive due to the suspension of his employment contract, which should be compensated by Russia. It should be compensated by the aggressor country.
The State Labor Service of Ukraine agrees with the position of the Ministry of Economy. The employer must make all payments by the day of the suspension of the employment contract.
The final settlement with the employee should be made on the day of dismissal. If the employee didn't work on the last day, the money must be paid no later than the next day after the dismissed employee makes a request for final payment.

If the company is out of work

If a business is temporarily out of work due to active hostilities, final payment to the employee can be made after the business resumes operations. The company will be relieved of responsibility for violation of wage payment deadlines if it proves that the violation was caused by force majeure.