The Ombudsman of Ukraine files a lawsuit against the 1,600-hryvnia minimum for court payments to the KSU
Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, filed a petition with the Constitutional Court to review the constitutionality of a separate provision of the law on the state budget for 2024, which concerns the determination of the amount of the minimum wage for the calculation of payments. On September 6, the Constitutional Court confirmed receipt of this submission.
Lubinets appeals provisions of Part 2 of Article 8 of Law No. 3460-IX, adopted on November 9, 2023. We are talking about the norm that sets the minimum wage for calculating payments based on court decisions at the level of 1,600 hryvnias. At the same time, the actual minimum wage in 2024 should be 7,100 hryvnias from January and 8,000 hryvnias from April.
According to the ombudsman, this rule violates a number of articles of the Constitution of Ukraine, in particular, articles 8, 16, 22, 41, 50, 56, 62, and 95. He emphasizes that the reduction of the minimum wage for certain payments contradicts the constitutional guarantees of citizens’ rights.
In his submission, Lubinets also notes that the Cabinet of Ministers, when developing the relevant draft law, justified this decision by the need to reduce the costs of executing court decisions regarding the transfer of pensions. However, the Main Scientific and Expert Department of the Verkhovna Rada apparatus, in its conclusions to this draft law, questioned the correctness of setting different levels of the minimum wage. Experts noted that this contradicts the legislation on wages, which does not provide for the differentiation of the minimum wage depending on the circumstances.
In addition, scientists warned that a decrease in the minimum wage could lead to a violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, in particular, the right to receive a fair wage. They also drew attention to the legal uncertainty of this provision, as it is unclear exactly which benefits are to be calculated on the basis of the reduced minimum wage, which creates risks of ambiguous application of the law.
Lubinets said that after the adoption of the 2024 budget, he received numerous appeals from citizens, including collective appeals from deputies of local councils, with a request to turn to the Constitutional Court on this issue. The submission has currently been assigned to a judge-rapporteur, although his name has not yet been announced.
