Changes to Work Permits Procedure
On January 18, 2017, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted the Resolution “On Amending the Procedure for Issuance, Prolongation and Annulment of Work Permits for Foreigners and Stateless Persons” (hereinafter – the “Resolution”), which amends the regime for work permits obtaining. Although most changes are of a technical character, there is a significant change regarding a term for conclusion of an employment agreement with a foreigner after the work permit is obtained. Since the Resolution came into effect, employers are now obliged to conclude it within 90 calendar days from the date of the work permit issuance. Before, there was no special term for an employment agreement conclusion – the employer should simply submit its copy to the State Employment Service (hereinafter – the “SES”) in 7 business days after it was signed. There is also a new term for submission of this copy to the SES – 10 calendar days instead of 7 business days.
The Resolution allows obtaining work permits not only for main (primary) jobs, but also for secondary (part-time) jobs. As regards technical changes, the Resolution obliges the SES to publish on its official web-site the decisions on rejection of application or annulment of the work permit. Finally, the Resolution empowers the Ministry of Social Policy and Labour to enact the procedure for administrative challenging of the SES’ decisions on rejection to issue or prolong the work permit, or decisions on annulment of the work permit.
The Resolution has become effective on February 3, 2017.
New Compliance Rules
On March 2, 2017, the National Agency for Corruption Prevention (hereinafter – the “NACP”) approved the Model Anticorruption Policy of a Legal Entity. We remind that the Law “On Corruption Prevention” effective from October 2014 (hereinafter – the “Law”), requires certain categories of legal entities to approve internally an anticorruption policy and appoint a compliance officer. Under those categories who must follow these rules fall (Article 62 of the Law):
- state or municipal legal entities (where state or municipality has more than 50% of control) having more than 50 employees and with annual revenues exceeding UAH 70 millions;
- all legal entities (including private ones), which participate in public procurement procedures with tender sum exceeding UAH 20 millions.
According to the NACP’s decision of March 2, 2017, these legal entities have to approve their internal anticorruption policies on the basis of the approved Model Anticorruption Policy. The Model Anticorruption Policy contains all 15 obligatory chapters, required by Article 63 of the Law. It is published online on the NACP’s and the Parliament’s web-sites.
This decision of the NACP has become effective on March 17, 2017.
Published: BEERG (European labour law briefing), #13, April 2017
Authors: Oksana Voynarovska, Oleksandr Melnyk