5 November 2025

 

On 4 November 2025, during the public part of the plenary session in the form of oral proceedings, the Grand Chamber proceeded with the deliberation of the case upon constitutional complaints filed by Viktor Soroka, Roman Karpenko, Yuriy Prokopenko, Eduard Dudkevich, Oleksandr Romanenko, and Olena Ilyushonok.

The complainants appealed to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine with requests to review the compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine of subparagraph 17 of paragraph 1 of Section I of the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding the Optimisation of Labour Relations” dated 1 July 2022 No. 2352-IX (hereinafter the “Law”).

The judges-rapporteurs in this case are Viktor Kychun, Vasyl Lemak, Oleg Pervomaiskyi, Petro Filiuk, and Galyna Yurovska.

As noted by the Chair of the plenary session, Oleksandr Petryshyn, the Grand Chamber combined the cases into a single constitutional proceeding upon the constitutional complaints and delivered a ruling to change the form of deliberation from written to oral proceedings, and to resume its deliberation in an public part plenary session with the participation of representatives of the subjects of constitutional complaints, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the President of Ukraine, and the involved participants – the Minister of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine, the Minister of Defence of Ukraine, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Social Policy and Protection of Veterans' Rights, and the Presidential Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Military Personnel and Their Families.

During the plenary session, it was noted that subparagraph 17 of paragraph 1 of Section I of the Law amended  of Article 119.3 of the Labour Code of Ukraine (hereinafter the “Code”), namely: the words “the place of work, position and average earnings shall be retained” were replaced by the words “the place of work and position shall be retained”.

In accordance with Article 119.3 of the Code, "employees called up for fixed-term military service, military service as commissioned officers, military service during mobilisation, for a special period, military service as reservists during a special period or accepted for military service under contract [...] during the special period for a term until its end or until the day of actual dismissal, their place of work and position at the enterprise, institution, organisation [...] shall be retained. Such employees shall be paid monetary compensation from the State Budget of Ukraine in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On Social and Legal Protection of Military Men and Members of Their Families.”

According to the complainants, the contested provision of the Law is unconstitutional because it restricts the content and scope of existing rights to the calculation and payment of average earnings to employees called up for military service during a special period, due to the entry into force of subparagraph 17 of paragraph 1 of Section I of the Law, violates the principle of the rule of law and the guarantees provided for citizens who are in military service.

During the plenary session, the Court heard explanations from the subjects of the right to constitutional complaint, Viktor Soroka, Yurii Prokopenko, Olena Ilyushonok, the permanent representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Maksym Dyrdin, and the representative of the President of Ukraine in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Serhii Dembovskyi.

The participants involved in the constitutional proceedings also presented their positions: Minister for Veterans Affairs of Ukraine Natalia Kalmykova, Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Social Policy and Protection of Veterans' Rights Galyna Tretyakova, and Military Ombudsman Olha Kobylynska.

The Court also granted the motion of Maksym Dyrdin, Permanent Representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, to involve other participants in the constitutional proceedings in the consideration of the case, namely: representatives of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine, and the Federation of Employers of Ukraine.

The Court adjourned the case. The Court will proceed with its deliberation on 25 November this year.

The video recording of the plenary session is available on the Court’s official website in the Section “Archive of Video Broadcasts of Sessions”