Penalties of the State Service of Ukraine on Labour – risks during inspecting

This article about Penalties of the State Service of Ukraine on Labour is a comprehensive publication, that will help you to understand the amount of fines, that can be imposed by inspectors from the State Labor Service of Ukraine. In addition, the publication will help you to understand how to identify and minimize the risks of hiring employees.

Where the penalties of the State Service of Ukraine on Labour are provided?

The penalties, that may be imposed by the Inspector from the State Labor Service in 2019 are provided in the Code of labor laws. In particular, they are envisaged in article 265 of the Code. The feature of fines is that they are tied to the size of the national minimum wage. Thus, in the case of wage growth, the size of state labor fines will increase. According to recent practice, the minimum wage rises 1-2 times each year.

The amont of penalties the inspector may impose

125,190 UAH – for the worker’s permission to work without official registration; or for a part-time employee, but in fact, such worker will work full-time.

12,519 UAH – for delayed payment of wages more than a month; or the payment of wages is not in full amount.

4 173 UAH – for paying less than the minimum wage.

417 300 and 12,519 UAH – for preventing the inspection or creating obstacles to its implementation.

4173 UAH – for violation of any other requirements of labor legislation.

The penalty for preventing the State Labor Inspection

For non-compliance, before the inspection 2 fines were set: 12 519 UAH and 413 300 UAH. It is difficult to conceive, that the difference in the amounts is large and you would like to know exactly what kind of sanction the inspector will apply in case of non-compliance. In fact, the majority of inspectors oversees the largest amount of fines, that is, 413 300 UAH. The problem is that the law is rather vague and allows for manipulation. However, we will analyze more in detail.

A smaller fine is foreseen for not being admitted to conducting an inspection on compliance with labor legislation or creating obstacles to its implementation. Thus, if you were acquainted with an inspection order, where it is clearly stated that the check is related to the “checking the compliance of labor legislation”, you can safely assume, that the penalty will be the lowest. A similar argument is supported by the court.

In particular, in this judgment. In such cases, you need to be extremely careful, since the line between a fine of 413 300 UAH and 12 519 UAH is very thin. It is safe to act only if familiarized with the corresponding order.

Who can impose penalties of the State Service of Ukraine on Labour

Details on the procedure for conducting inspections by the inspectors of the State Labor Service are established by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine no. 295.

Inspectors from the State Labor Service may be:

1. public inspectors designated by local authorities.
2. employees of the State Labor Service;

The fines of the State Labor Service 2019 may be imposed only by the current Inspector. Department of the State Labor Service has repeatedly reported that there is a register of valid certificates of State Labor Inspectors.

If your company is visited by an inspector – first of all, it is necessary to allocate to him the workplace, so that the inspector did not walk around the whole enterprise, and secondly, it is necessary to check his certificate. 

In case the certificate is invalid – you can safely refuse to carry out the inspection.

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Grounds for carrying out inspections and imposing of fines of the State Labor Service

The aforementioned provision provides for the exclusive grounds for the inspection of the State Labor Service.The list of grounds is exhaustive, but they are quite broad, can be used for manipulative interpretations. Therefore, the reasons are: 

1. an employee’s request for abuse against him labor laws;
2. the appeal of a person in respect of which the rules for the employment of labor relations have been violated;
3. by the State Labor Service decision in case of getting an information about violation of labor legislation from any sources ( media, social media or other prohibited means of disseminating information);
4. by court decision or notification by notification of police;
5. by notification of tax service or state statistic.

Accordingly, you can make a conclusion, that grounds for carrying out the inspection cover all possible means of collecting information. In general, it borrows the risk for business. Even if somewhere will be widespread false rumor about violation of labor legislation – it is enough to make an inspection in such private entrepreneur.

The inspector comes ready for inspection

The inspector of the State Labor Service before carrying out an inspection usually gets an information about number of officially employed workers from tax service. Its allowed by Regulation No.295. In this manner, coming to the company inspector knows what to expect. In according to tax service information it is officially employed 10 workers but coming to the company inspector saw 20 or 30 workers – it’s a huge risk to get a penalty.

Carrying out inspection without notification

The most dangerous and scary for business is regulation about inspector’s entitled to make inspection without notification.  This regulation is not a myth. According to paragraph 8 of the mentioned regulation. 

During the inspection, inspector of the State Labor Service had to show valid attestation. Its enough the inspection recognize as valid.

Infographic – penalties of the State Labor Service of Ukraine in 2019