Working without a labour contract is like playing with fire
Kateryna (name changed), the editor of an oblast-level media site, will hardly receive the 30,000 hryvnias that her employer owes her. It’s all because she did not have a labour contract and received her wage “in the envelope”. Read Kateryna’s story and a comment by the SLS expert to avoid falling into the trap.
Some time ago Kateryna was invited to become the editor-in-chief of an oblast-level media site. They promised a competitive wage, and a possibility of building her team by herself as well as implementing important projects which help children from the east of Ukraine. All that resembled a dream job, and the girl agreed.
In the beginning, Kateryna was offered official employment. However, that question was not immediately settled, and then it was forgotten somehow. She was working from home and receiving her wage “in the envelope” but regularly.
I simply had no experience in employment relationship formalization,"
she explains.
“I myself written the editor-in-chief’s employment duties and who and what would be doing in my team. We approved that. It was actually just a sheet of paper. I worked for more than a year and was absolutely happy. After the first six months of work, they even raised my wage by three thousand hryvnias"
Then something went wrong
After a year of cooperation, they started approaching Kateryna with additional tasks – help at negotiations, deliver a presentation, or advise designers on how to make advertisement layouts better.
“That was additional workload, distracting me from what I was doing everyday: development of content plans or editing of texts written by freelance authors. However, I did not refuse”, Kateryna says.
First, the employer paid some money for that and provided additional days-off but then the new tasks were began to be treated as Kateryna’s direct duties.
The girl had less days-off then. A paid leave was also out of question. Finally, in a few months wage delays began.
“By and large, it would have been correct to terminate the cooperation. However, I implemented a lot of interesting projects at that job, therefore I swallowed all that”, she says.
Later, the situation got even worse
As lockdown began in spring of 2020, the site reduced its scope of work with freelance writers. Kateryna was paid part of her wage until the middle of summer and then the payments stopped at all.
“I tried to talk to managers about the arrears. I also suggested some ideas of how to mobilize additional funds for development of the editorial office. However, the dialogue just vanished. They have not been paying any money for more than three months now. I’m not sure I will get the funds I’ve earned, and I’m not sure at all if there is any sense to keep working”, Kateryna says.
By now, they owe me more than 30 thousand hryvnias"
That said, according to Kateryna, she cannot make the employer to meet his obligations: there are just no documents which would confirm that someone owes her something.
“We already have a sad family joke that I’m a housewife with an interesting hobby. We had to take a loan to tackle the force majeure circumstances that had arisen. Everything earned by my husband is spent on payment for daily needs. Living this way is quite uncomfortable”, the girl admits.
Everything must be spelled out in a contract even with those people whom you know for a hundred years. As soon as something goes wrong in business, any oral agreements will cease to exist. A labour contract is a way of taking care of yourself. That’s just as important as sleeping for 8 hours a day, brushing teeth, washing hands and wearing a mask during the pandemic"
she adds
An expert’s comment
Olena Konovalova, Deputy Director, Labour Department, State Labour Service of Ukraine
Kateryna’s employer must have concluded a labour contract with her since the very first day. In that case, the current labour legislation would have protected her rights to decent pay, to a 40-hour working week, days-off, leave, and sick benefits – this list is rather long. The employer might not have changed working conditions unilaterally. In case of losing her job during the lockdown, Kateryna would have had the right to unemployment benefit.
Working without a contract is playing with fire. The employer can break the law and ignore the worker’s rights. Kateryna found herself in a risky situation since the very first day: they could have stopped paying her at any moment, and she was doing much extra work without pay. Her work will not be counted in her service record and will not have any impact on her pension.
Can something be done? Unfortunately, it will be difficult to get the money due. Public authorities’ capabilities are very limited in this aspect. Given no labour contract, it is almost impossible to prove any previous arrangements and amounts of work done. The only way out is to go to court and try to prove the fact of doing work without a labour contract. However, such judicial proceedings can last for years.
Remember: the employer must formalize the worker, and the worker has the right to demand that. The procedure is simple and includes only three steps.
If you need an advice approach a labour inspector, and they will tell you about everything and help you.
