European Employment Insights: June 2026 (Ukraine)

COURT

The Supreme Court of Ukraine has adopted a new legal stance on cases related to the suspension of employment agreements

• The substance of the dispute

A claimant challenged actions of the state enforcement service, that had calculated child support allowance arrears based on the average salary for the relevant region. The claimant argued that his employment agreement had been suspended based on the employer’s order and not terminated, and therefore the calculation should not have been made using the model applicable to an unemployed person, but should have taken into account his salary provided for in his employment agreement.

• The court’s previous legal stance

In previous similar cases, courts have ruled that suspending an employment agreement does not make a person unemployed under the terms of the Family Code of Ukraine. Consequently, applying the average salary for the relevant region is unlawful. Under labor laws in the event of the suspension of an employment agreement an employee retains their job and position. The obligation to compensate for lost earnings during the suspension period is imposed by law on the aggressor state. Therefore, the application of the regional average salary figure to calculate the amount of a child support allowance is inappropriate. Such calculation should be based on the salary that would have been accrued had the work been performed normally.

• The court’s new legal stance

In March 2026, when reviewing the case, the Joint Chamber of the Civil Cassation Court of the Supreme Court of Ukraine determined that the previously established practice should be deviated from, since the Law of Ukraine “On Organization of Labor Relations under Martial Law” does not establish specific provisions on the payment of a child support allowance by a person whose employment agreement is suspended, nor does it provide for either the automatic deduction of the allowance payments or the accrual of arrears by an employer during the period of such suspension. Therefore, arrears in allowance payments calculated as a percentage of earnings (income) of an employee whose employment agreement is suspended and who has not received any earnings (income) during the relevant period shall be calculated based on the average salary in the relevant region.