November 14, 2024
On November 13, 2024, the Second Senate of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine at the plenary session deliberated the case upon the constitutional complaint of the Primary Trade Union Organisation of the All-Ukrainian Trade Union Workers of Science, Production and Finance of PJSC “ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih” (hereinafter, the “Applicant”) regarding the compliance of individual provisions of Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Procedure for Settlement of Collective Labour Disputes (Conflicts)” No. 137/98-VR dated March 3, 1998 (hereinafter, the “Law”) with the Constitution of Ukraine (constitutionality) and delivered the Decision No. 10-r(ІІ)/2024.
The Judge-Rapporteur in the case is Oleg Pervomayskyi.
By this Decision, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine declared the provisions of Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine, that stipulate: “Deliberation of a collective labour dispute (conflict) shall be carried out on the issues provided for in paragraphs (a) and (b) of Article 2 of this Law by a conciliation commission, and in case of failure to deliver a decision within the terms established by Article 9 of this Law, by labour arbitration” (paragraphs 1 and 2) as compliant with the Constitution of Ukraine.
On May 28, 2020, the applicant appealed to the Dzerzhynskyi District Court of Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, against the Public Joint Stock Company “ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih”, the Primary Organisation of the Trade Union of Workers of the Metallurgical and Mining Industry of Ukraine of “ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih” Public Joint Stock Company, to declare the amendments to the collective agreement invalid, which, by its Ruling dated June 1, 2020, refused to initiate proceedings on the respective claim and clarified that «in accordance with Article 7 of the said Law of Ukraine “On the Procedure for Settlement of Collective Labour Disputes (Conflicts)”, it is provided that deliberation of a collective labour dispute (conflict) on the conclusion or amendment of a collective agreement, treaty is carried out by a conciliation commission, and in case of failure to deliver a decision within the terms established by Article 9 of this Law, by labour arbitration». The courts of appeal and cassation upheld the district court’s ruling. The courts of appeal and cassation upheld the ruling of the district court.
The applicant appealed to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, believing that since individual provisions of Article 7 of the Law regulate only the extrajudicial procedure for resolving a collective labour dispute (conflict), they do not comply with Articles 8.3, 55.2, 55.6, 64, 124.3 of the Constitution of Ukraine.
In resolving the issue of compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine (constitutionality) of the impugned provisions of the Law, the Court proceeded from the following.
Citizens have the right to participate in trade unions in order to defend their labour, social and economic rights and interests, as provided for in Article 36.3 of the Constitution of Ukraine.
Under Article 55 of the Fundamental Law of Ukraine, human and citizen’s rights and freedoms are protected by courts (Article 55.1); everyone has the right to protect their rights and freedoms from violations and unlawful encroachments by any means not prohibited by law (Article 55.6).
Pursuant to Article 124 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the administration of justice in Ukraine shall be exclusively by courts (Article 124.1); delegation of court functions and appropriation of these functions by other bodies or officials is inadmissible (Article 124.2); the jurisdiction of courts extends to any legal dispute and any criminal charge; in cases provided for by law, courts shall also deliberate other cases (Article 124.3); the law may provide for a mandatory pre-trial dispute settlement procedure (Article 124.4).
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine believes that the provisions of the Law regulate the procedure for settlement of a collective labour dispute (conflict), which has the features of a mandatory pre-trial dispute settlement procedure.
The provisions of Articles 55, 124 of the Fundamental Law of Ukraine and the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine formulated earlier are the basis for the conclusion that the implementation of the mandatory pre-trial procedure for settling a legal dispute under the existing constitutional procedure should not impede the further exercise by a person of the constitutional right guaranteed to him/her to appeal to a court.
In accordance with the provisions of Articles 124.1–124.4 of the Constitution of Ukraine, deliberation and settlement of a collective labour dispute (conflict), where the labour dispute (conflict) is a legal dispute, by a conciliation commission and/or labour arbitration are additional components of the mechanism for protecting the parties to a collective labour dispute (conflict), regardless of whether the resolution of such dispute by these bodies can provide an appropriate level of institutional and procedural guarantees for the parties to the collective labour dispute (conflict).
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine finds that individual provisions of Article 7 of the Law do not deprive the primary trade union organisation or other party to a collective labour dispute (conflict) that is a legal dispute of the guarantees provided by the Constitution of Ukraine to exercise the right to judicial protection on the basis of the provisions of the relevant procedural law in case the labour dispute (conflict) that is a legal dispute has not been resolved in a mandatory pre-trial procedure in accordance with the Law.
In view of the foregoing, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine holds that individual provisions of Article 7 of the Law do not contradict Articles 8.3, 36.3, 55.1, 55.6, 124.1, 124.2, 124.3 of the Constitution of Ukraine.
