On 11 September 2024, the Second Senate of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, at the public part of the plenary session, commenced deliberation of the case upon the constitutional complaint of Viktor Dovzhenko in the form of written proceedings.
During the plenary session, the judge-rapporteur in the case, Oleh Pervomaiskyi, outlined the main content of the constitutional complaint and the applicant's arguments. In particular, the judge noted that the subject of the right to a constitutional complaint had filed an application with the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to verify the compliance of Article 8.2 of the Law of Ukraine "On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2024" No. 3460-IX dated November 9, 2023 with Articles 8.1, 22.3, 24.1, 24.2, 43.4 of the Constitution of Ukraine (hereinafter, the “Law”).
Article 8.2 of the Law sets the minimum wage, which is applied as a calculation value for calculating payments under court decisions, at UAH 1,600.
According to the author of the complaint, in the absence of a special legislative act that would define “the right to apply the minimum wage as a calculated value for calculating payments by court decision”, the disputed provision of the Law worsens the legal situation of a person, narrowing the content and scope of his or her social rights.
The content of the constitutional complaint and the materials attached to it reveals the following.
The Zhytomyr District Administrative Court ordered the Main Department of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Zhytomyr Region (hereinafter, the “Department”) to calculate and pay Viktor Dovzhenko a pension increase as a “non-working pensioner” residing on the territory of radioactive contamination in the amount established by Article 39 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Status and Social Protection of Citizens Affected by the Chornobyl Disaster” No. 796-XII dated February 28, 1991, as amended (hereinafter, “Law No. 796”).
Viktor Dovzhenko filed a petition with the court to establish judicial control over the execution of the court decision, in which he requested the court to declare unlawful the actions of the Office to determine the amount of his additional pension based on two minimum wages applied as the calculation value for calculating payments under the court decision, at the level of UAH 1,600.
The court dismissed the application, noting that, given the change in the minimum wage each year, “the defendant is obliged to recalculate and pay the pension supplement” in accordance with Article 39 of Law No. 796, taking into account such changes; Article 8.2 of the Law separately defines the amount of the minimum wage, which is applied as a calculation value for calculating payments under court decisions, at UAH 1,600; therefore, the Office has no “legal grounds for applying the minimum wage of UAH 7,100 as a calculation value when calculating and paying the plaintiff a pension increase from January 2024”.
The judge-rapporteur also informed that in order to ensure a full and objective deliberation of the case and to ensure that the Court delivers a well-reasoned decision, he sent inquiries to a number of bodies of state power and higher education establishments with a request to express their opinions on the issues raised in the constitutional complaint.
After examining the case file in the public part of the plenary session, the Second Senate proceeded to the in-camera part of the plenary session.
The plenary session is available on the official website of the Court in the section “Archive of video broadcasts of sessions”.
