Normative and legal regulation of the scope of collective agreements and contracts

Abstract

The article analyzes the development of legislation in the field of collective agreement regulation, focuses on the problems of reforming the current legislation that regulates the conclusion of collective agreements and agreements, and draws relevant conclusions. It is noted that the collective agreement regulation, which provides for the direct participation of the subjects of labor relations in establishing working conditions through the conclusion of social partnership acts, is gaining special relevance today. And that is why it is urgent to reform the current legislation in the field of concluding collective agreements, since this agreement is an important component of the legal technique of creation in the legal science of Ukraine. It was concluded that despite the significant number of normative legal acts, there remains a sufficient number of undefined and problematic issues that serve as an obstacle to the establishment of effective collective and contractual labor regulation. One of these problems was the uncertainty of the legal content of the concepts of “collective contract” and “collective agreement” in the current labor legislation of Ukraine, although this issue has been repeatedly covered in scientific literature. And if the current Code of Labor Laws of Ukraine contains a chapter dedicated to the collective agreement, then there are no regulations regarding collective agreements at all, which is one of the significant shortcomings. It was established that with the adoption of the new version of the Law “On Collective Agreements and Contracts” dated February 23, 2023, such categories were defined as “branch agreement of limited effect”; “collective agreement (general, sectoral (inter-sectoral), limited sectoral, territorial, territorial in a separate industry)”; “collective agreement” “employee”; “employer”, and a number of issues regarding which there were legislative gaps were settled at the legislative level. The activation of collective bargaining in the conditions of martial law is noted, which is an indispensable tool for regulating social and labor relations, which provides an opportunity to mitigate negative social consequences for employees. Because since the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine, devastating blows have also been inflicted on the development of the existing system of collective and contractual work.