10 May 2023
On May 10, 2023, at the public part of the plenary session in the form of written proceedings, the Second Senate of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine considered the case upon the constitutional complaint of Serhii Menchynskyi regarding the constitutionality of a separate provision of the third paragraph of clause 3 of Section II "Final and Transitional Provisions" of the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Priority Measures for the Reform of the Prosecutor's Office" of September 19, 2019 No. 113-IX (hereinafter - the Law).
During the plenary session, the judge-rapporteur in the case, Viktor Horodovenko, noted that Serhii Menchynskyi had filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to check whether the provisions of the third paragraph of Section II, paragraph 3 of the Final and Transitional Provisions of the Law regarding “remuneration of employees of the prosecutor's office in accordance with the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine" comply with paragraph 14 of Article 92.1 and Article 1311.2 of Constitution of Ukraine.
According to the third paragraph of Section II, paragraph 3, "Final and Transitional Provisions" of the Law, "prosecutors and heads of regional, local and military prosecutor's offices, prosecutors and heads of structural units of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine shall retain the respective legal status they had before the entry into force of this Law when performing prosecutorial functions until the day of their dismissal or transfer to the Office of the Prosecutor General, regional prosecutor's office, district prosecutor's office. For the said period, remuneration of employees of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, regional prosecutor's offices, local prosecutor's offices, military prosecutor's offices shall be paid in accordance with the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine establishing remuneration of employees of the prosecution authorities."
The complainant notes that the disputed provision of the Law reduces the amount of the prosecutor's salary defined by Article 81.3 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Prosecutor's Office", narrows the content and scope of rights <...> to salary". The applicant believes that "the salary of prosecutors, as an element of the organisation and procedure of the prosecutor's office within the meaning of Article 1311 of the Basic Law of Ukraine, should be determined exclusively by law, not by a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers. The process of attestation of prosecutors, launched in accordance with the Law in September 2019, should in no way have put prosecutors in an unequal position in terms of remuneration for their work with the same official duties, which can be regarded as an encroachment on the guarantee of independence of their activities and a violation of the principle of proper material support of prosecutors, a kind of discrimination".
In addition, the subject of the right to constitutional complaint points out that as a result of the application by the courts of the disputed provision of the Law, "his constitutional rights and guarantees established" by Article 21, 22.3, 24.1, 24.2, 41.1, 43.4, 64.1 of the Constitution of Ukraine have been violated.
The Second Senate examined the case file in the public part of the plenary session and proceeded to the in-camera part for decision-making.
The plenary session was attended by a representative of the subject of the right to constitutional complaint Vitaliya Menchynska.
The video of the public part of the plenary session is available on the official website of the Court in the section Archive of video broadcasts of the sessions.
