Iryna Prokopovych-Pavlyuk, PhD in Economics, Associate Professor of the Department of Statistics, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Lviv, Ukraine

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8316-0127
e-mail: iryna.prokopovych-pavlyuk@lnu.edu.ua

Svitlana Kvak, PhD in Economics, Associate Professor of the Department of Statistics, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Lviv, Ukraine

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5104-0617
e-mail: svitlana.kvak@lnu.edu.ua

Labor relations in Ukraine: Regulatory Regulation and Economic Analytics

Abstract. Introduction. The article examines the key aspects of legal regulation of labor relations in Ukraine, in particular, the definition of an employment contract under the current legislation and its impact on socio-economic indicators of labor quality. Special attention is paid to the analysis of employment rates, quality of working life and remuneration, as well as to the evaluation of the level of informal employment, its causes and consequences for the labor market.

Purpose. Based on data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the dynamics of unemployment rates, nominal and real wages, and trends in precarious employment are analyzed. A trend towards a decrease in the number of officially registered unemployed is identified. The reasons for this include mass emigration of citizens abroad, internal migration, mobilization, and reduced unemployment benefits. The problem of informal employment, analyzed for the pre-war years, tends to worsen during the war. This leads to a deterioration in the quality of working life, reduced protection of workers, a diminishing practical role of labor legislation, and the shadowing of the economy and, in particular, the labor market.

The decline in the number of formal employment contracts and the declining coverage of workers by these contracts has a negative impact on the social protection of workers and weakens the role of trade unions as defenders of workers’ rights in industrial relations. Key challenges related to the transformation of the labour market, the spread of new forms of employment and industrial relations are highlighted.

Results. The digitalization of the economy is fostering the emergence of new forms of employment, such as part-time, temporary, remote work and self-employment, and new forms of industrial relations, including freelancing, crowdsourcing, outstaffing and outsourcing. While this opens up new opportunities for employment and the labor market, it also poses significant social challenges, such as shadow employment and increased informal employment, which limit the factors that ensure high quality work.

Conclusions. In order to ensure fair, effective and flexible working conditions and to improve social protection for workers, directions for improving Ukrainian labor legislation are proposed. These include improving the current labor legislation in terms of provisions on legal mechanisms for maintaining stability in labor relations; aligning Ukrainian labor law standards with international labor law, taking into account risks that may reduce the effectiveness of existing legal mechanisms; and including provisions aimed at ensuring social security and stability in labor relations.

Keywords: labor relations; legal regulation; quality of working life; informal employment; precarious employment; employment contract; remuneration; social protection.

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