11 December 2007, 15:00
This Bill (No.1156) provides for the legislative establishment of an employer's duty to effect at least a minimum hourly payment of hired labour. The specific level of hourly payment shall be laid down by The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the Law of Ukraine ' On the State Budget of Ukraine', with taking into account the income level for each coming year.
The legislative acceptance of a guaranteed hourly payment minimum for hired workers, according to the Bill´s authors, will allow for an improvement in the enforcement of workers' constitutional Rights, and also move forwards towards an approximation of the Ukrainian Law with International standards.
Laid down in the current legislation is a minimum level of monthly wages to be paid out by all employers, whatever their ownership and business status. O. Zarubynsky, one of the Bill´s authors, considers this 'a significant shortcoming in the minimum labour remuneration assurance system'. Using this, he stressed that some employers feel free to violate the Law, depriving their hired workers, for various reasons, of the opportunity of working a complete month, and by so doing fail to pay out the minimum wages as laid down by the Law. In foreign countries the usual practice is to regulate an hourly instead of monthly payment level.