On June 26, 2024, at the public part of the plenary session, in the form of written proceedings, the Second Senate initiated the deliberation of the case upon the constitutional complaint of Oleksandr Romanenko.
During the plenary session, the judge-rapporteur in the case Galyna Yurovska outlined the content of the constitutional complaint and the complainant’s arguments.
In particular, the judge noted that the applicant had filed a petition with the Court to verify the compliance of paragraph 1.17 of Section I of the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Optimisation of Labour Relations” No. 2352-IX dated July 1, 2022 (hereinafter, the “Law”), which amended Article 119.3 of the Labour Code of Ukraine (hereinafter, the “Code”), namely the words “the place of work, position and average earnings are preserved” were replaced by the words “the place of work and position are preserved” with Articles 1, 3.2, 8.1, 13.4, 17.5, 22.2, 22.3, 43.1, 48, 58.1, 64 of the Constitution of Ukraine.
Oleksandr Romanenko believes that the disputed provision of the Law does not comply with the Constitution of Ukraine, as it narrows the content and scope of existing rights and freedoms contrary to the provisions of Article 22.3 of the Constitution of Ukraine, in particular the right to work, which includes the opportunity to earn a living by work that he/she freely chooses or agrees to, and violates the rule of law principle and the guarantees provided for in Article 17.5 of the Constitution of Ukraine for citizens serving at the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
According to the judge-rapporteur, the case file provides that Oleksandr Romanenko has an employment relationship with the Private joint-stock company (hereinafter, “the Company”). He was conscripted for military service on March 7, 2022. In connection with the amendments to Article 119.3 of the Code by paragraph 1.17 of Section I of the Law, according to the Order of the Company, the payment of average earnings to Oleksandr Romanenko was terminated from July 19, 2022.
The courts refused to satisfy the claims of Oleksandr Romanenko for invalidation of the Company Order and recovery of his average salary, concluding that the disputed provisions of the Code regarding the retention of the applicant’s average salary during military service applied to him until July 19, 2022, i.e. until the date the Law came into force; and starting from July 19, 2022, the Company was deprived of the right to retain his average salary.
At the public part of the plenary session, the Second Senate of the Court deliberated the petition of the representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine at the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Maksym Dyrdin to change the form of the deliberation of the case from written to oral proceedings and refused in its satisfaction.
After studying the case file in the public part of the plenary session, the Second Senate 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 Constitutional Court of Ukraine in the Section “Archive of video broadcasts of the sessions”.
