Theme 10. A labour routine and labour discipline. Disciplinary liability

Methodical recommendations for independent work

Consideration of this theme must be begun with the concept of labour discipline in labour legislation, its significance in nowadays. In literature the concept of labour discipline as a legal category examined in four aspects:

1) as one of basic principles of labour law;

2) as an element of labour legal relationships;

3) as an institute of labour law;

4) as actual behaviour, id est level of observing of labour discipline by all employees.

As a legal institute labour discipline have to be understood as a body of legal norms, which regulate an internal labour policy, establish the labour duties of employees and employer, specifies the personnel incentives for successes and responsibility for culpable non-performance of employee’s duties. Students should give general characteristic of the legal regulation of labour discipline on enterprises.

Rules of behaviour, co-operation between employees on a certain enterprise, in establishment or organisation in the course of performance of labour activity – this is internal labour policy.

A labour order comprises the system of legal acts that regulate the order of labour activity execution. Normative-legal acts that regulate an internal labour order are divided into two groups:

– general (CLL of Ukraine, Laws of Ukraine, Decrees of The President of Ukraine, Standard internal labour regulations and other);

– special, that take into account particularities of certain production units, and also peculiarities of labour of certain categories of workers (branch-wise internal labour regulations, disciplinary regulation; disciplinary provision for certain categories of employees and others).

Methods of labour discipline providing is advisable to study as methods of providing of implementation by workers and employer of the duties, prescribed by labour legislation.

Methods of labour discipline providing are legally provided in art. 140 of CLL, among them are:

1) Method of persuasion – it is method of educational influence on employees;

2) method of stimulation – moral and material stimulation for good work, granting of advantages and preferences for the workers who perform their labour duties carefully and successfully;

3) method of compulsion – applying to the violators of labour discipline, if necessary, means of disciplinary and public influence and material responsibility for damages caused to the employer as a result of non-fulfilment of the labour duties.

Special attention should be paid to disciplinary liability and its kinds. Students should begin with the consideration of two types of responsibility of employees – disciplinary and material.

Responsibility according to the labour law it is a type of legal responsibility, it is legally provided employee’s duty to bear responsibility for commitment of labour offence.

The ground of disciplinary responsibility is labour offence – unlawful act hat is non-fulfilment or improper execution of labour duties by employee. It is necessary to distinguish two types of labour offence – disciplinary offence (breach of discipline) and labour material offence (inflicting damages). General for these offences is non-fulfilment by worker of labour duties exactly. Peculiarities of each of these types of offence are the precondition of application in labour law of mentioned types of employees’ responsibility according to the labour legislation of Ukraine.

It is necessary to memorize that disciplinary responsibility as one of the types of legal responsibility is the duty of employee to be responsible for the breach of labour discipline and to bear the disciplinary responsibility prescribed by the legislation of Ukraine on labour. The ground for disciplinary responsibility is a disciplinary offence, composition of which includes: subject, object, subjective side and objective side.

Disciplinary offence is non-fulfilment of exactly labour duties. By general rule, non-fulfilment of public duties, moral, ethic rules of behaviour that not related with performance of labour function cannot cause legal responsibility.

According to the art. 147 of CLL for violation of labour discipline to the employee can be applied only one of disciplinary penalties: reproof or dismissal. According to legislation and special regulations and positions on discipline other disciplinary penalties can be established for certain categories of employees. As disciplinary penalties are used grounds for dismissal established by items 3, 4, 7, 8 and 1 of art. 41 of CLL of Ukraine. It is necessary to master the order of application, appeal and removal of the disciplinary penalties prescribed by the articles 147-151 of The CLL of Ukraine. It’s necessary accentuate on such key moments:

1) nobody can be twice brought to the legal liability of one type for the same offence (art. 61 of The Constitution of Ukraine);

2) for every violation of labour discipline can be used only one disciplinary penalty;

3) to apply disciplinary penalty an employer must to demand explanations in writing from the violator of labour discipline. Absence of such explanations does not hinder the penalty application if an employer has proofs that he had demanded explanations, but employee did not give them. Such proof can be the act, drawn up with the signatures of few persons. Such act must confirm the worker’s refusal to give explanation about the violation of labour discipline.

4) while selecting the type of penalty, an employer must take into account certain terms:

– a gravity of disciplinary offence;

– the harm caused by employee;

– previous work of employee;

– circumstances of offence conduction.

5) employee has right to appeal disciplinary demission in a court, if an employer will not take into account the listed factors;

6) penalty should be declared in an employer’s order;

7) an order (order) about application of disciplinary penalty with specifying of reasons of its application should be revealed to employee under receipt in a three-day term (point 31 of Typical rules);

8) employee’s refuse to sign the order about applying of disciplinary penalty does not influences on effectiveness of declared penalty;

9) at the decision of question about application of disciplinary penalty to the employees which are elected to the trade-unions, it is necessary to take into account guarantees, specified for them in art. 252 of CLL.

Such means of influence as temporary suspension from work, bonus reduction, downgrading of a worker on skill category for gross violation of technological discipline and other serious violations which caused product degeneration don’t belong to the disciplinary penalties.

At the same time it is necessary to learn the additional means of influence on the violators of labour discipline (loss of free trip ticket, bonus reduction, moving down in housing queue and others like that). Thus it’s necessary to take into account, that concept «means of disciplinary and public influence» is more wide than concept «disciplinary and public penalty».

Plan of the lecture:

1. Legal regulation of labour routine.

2. The notion of labour discipline and methods of its supporting.

3. Disciplinary responsibility and its types.

4. Disciplinary penalty: the order of its awarding, appealing and discarding.