Anti-corruption compliance in labor relations in the lightof digitalization and achieving sustainable development: an economic and legal examination

Abstract

In the process of achieving Sustainable Development Goals by Ukraine and building Industry 4.0 here, which is accompanied by a global digital transformation (digitalization) of all public spheres of activity, such a multifunctional and multidimensional phenomenon as corruption is now a serious threat to all public relations, among which labor relations are no exception. It causes a decrease in the level of labor productivity of active employers due to manifestations of stigma, mobbing, bullying, primarily in relation to employees who expose corruption, etc. The purpose of the study is to clarify the content of one of the main elements of compliance in labor relations – anti-corruption compliance – using a synergetic approach characterized by a combination of labor law and labor economics, as well as to highlight the problems of regulating these relations and develop proposals for improving the current anti-corruption legislation in the field of labor in the light of digitalization of Ukraine and achieving sustainable development herein. The object of the study is the labor relations to ensure and support anti-corruption compliance at enterprises and the system of anti-corruption legislation, including in the field of labor, in Ukraine and abroad, which regulates these relations. The main methodological approach to the study of the chosen topic is synergetic, characterized by a combination of labor law and labor economics. The results of the study in the most generalized form justify the lack of certainty and little investigation of the legal and economic nature of such categories as "compliance" and "anti-corruption compliance", which have not yet become generally accepted for the conceptual apparatus of labor economics and, to a greater extent, labor legislation. Based on the theory of labor legislation and labor economics, the article describes anti-corruption compliance in labor relations as a condition of labor and a condition of an employment contract. The problematic issues of the implementation and regulation of labor relations in the field of anti-corruption compliance are identified: a low level of positive perception of the implementation of anti-corruption compliance policy in labor relations by the management of active enterprises; the existence of negative stereotypes in relation to employees who expose corruption; the lack of a clear methodology for measuring the level of digitalization of state processes today, which hinders the study of the impact of digitalization on strengthening the anti-corruption fight. In order to solve these problematic issues, it is proposed to supplement section X "Labor discipline" of the Labor Code of Ukraine, which regulates the internal labor regulations at an enterprise, institution or organization, with norms on new labor rights and obligations of the parties to labor relations that are directly related to combating corruption.