Financial liability of the employer under the legislation of foreign countries

Abstract

This article research the peculiarities of the legal regulation of the employer’s material responsibility as a party to an employment contract. The main problems of legal regulation of bringing the employer to material responsibility according to the current legislation on labor of Ukraine are outlined. In order to find ways to improve the current domestic labor legislation, the foreign experience of the legal regulation of bringing the employer to material responsibility was summarized (grounds, procedure for compensation of property damage caused to the employee, grounds for exempting the employer from material responsibility), as well as proposals for improving the legislation on labor of Ukraine. In particular, it was concluded that the current labor legislation of Ukraine does not contain provisions regarding the employer’s material responsibility for the damage caused to the employee. Since Chapter IX “Guarantees in the event of assigning material responsibility to employees for damage caused to the enterprise, institution, organization” provides rules exclusively on the material responsibility of one party to the employment contract - the employee. Particular attention is paid to the fact that the draft Labor Code of Ukraine No. 2410 provides provisions on the material responsibility of the employer, but the relevant norms need to be revised.In the process of writing the article, the legal framework, judicial practice and achievements of legal doctrine regarding the regulation of the employer’s material responsibility in such countries as Belgium, Great Britain, Spain, France and the United States of America were studied. During the writing of the article, general and special methods of learning social processes and legal phenomena were used, including formallogical, dialectical, system-functional and comparative-legal and other methods.Taking into account the experience of foreign countries in the field of legal regulation of the employer’s material responsibility, it was established the need to supplement the provisions of the current labor legislation of Ukraine with provisions on the employer’s material responsibility. Conclusions were made about the expediency of legislative consolidation of both general provisions on holding the employer to material responsibility and special cases of holding the employer to material responsibility.