January 15, 2025
On January 15, 2025, the First Senate, at the public part of the plenary session in the form of written proceedings, deliberated the case upon the constitutional complaint of Serhii Karas. As noted by the judge-rapporteur in the case, Olga Sovgyria, the applicant appealed to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to review the constitutionality of paragraph 3 of Section II “Final and Transitional Provisions” of the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine” dated December 6, 2016 No. 1774–VIII, as amended (hereinafter, “Law No. 1774”).
The contested provisions of Law No. 1774 establish that the minimum wage after the entry into force of this Law shall not be used as a calculation value for determining official salaries and wages of employees and other payments, except for the calculation of the annual amount of funding for the statutory activities of political parties. Until amendments are introduced to the laws of Ukraine regarding the non-application of the minimum wage as a calculation value, it shall be applied in the amount of the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons established as of 1 January of the calendar year, starting from 1 January 2017.
The applicant claims that as a result of the application by the courts of Ukraine of paragraph 3 of Section II “Final and Transitional Provisions” of Law No. 1774, the amount of the pension increase was actually reduced compared to the previously established payments provided for in Article 39 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Status and Social Protection of Citizens Affected by the Chornobyl Disaster” dated February 28, 1991 No. 796-XII, as amended.
In his opinion, the contested provisions of Law No. 1774 narrow the content and scope of his rights, because of which the right to property guaranteed by Articles 41.1, 41.4 of the Constitution of Ukraine was violated.
The judge-rapporteur also informed that a number of cases on constitutional complaints of citizens of Ukraine regarding the same issue are under deliberation by the First Senate.
In this case, the Court proceeded to the in-camera part of the plenary session for a decision.
The video recording of the plenary session is available on the official website of the Court in the section ”Archive of Video Broadcasts of Sessions”.
