Foreign experience of legal regulation of social protection of self-employed persons and the possibility of its use in Ukraine

Abstract

Employment of the population is one of the central problems not only in Ukraine, but also in the whole world. Achieving its high level is one of the main goals of any state. One of its forms is self-employment, which today is caused by the economic crisis associated with the war in the country, the consequence of which is the increase in the level of unemployment and the limitation of the demand for hired labor; low level of wages at state-owned enterprises; the formation of a market worldview, which as a result poses a real threat to state and social well-being. The purpose of the article is to analyze the experience of foreign countries regarding the legal regulation of social protection of self-employed persons and the possibility of its use in Ukraine. It was concluded that self-employment is regulated by a broad regulatory framework. At the same time, the lack of regulation by the main acts of labor legislation and legislation in the field of social security was noted. Attention is focused on the need to develop a separate legislative act. And in this, the experience of Germany, where the Social Code (“Sozialgesetzbuch”) has been developed, which consists of 12 chapters regulating certain types of social security, will be useful. In particular, the systematization of social legislation according to the German model would involve two directions: the adoption of the Code of Ukraine on social protection, the content of which would be formed from current laws and subordinate regulatory legal acts; and coordination of its content with other acts of social legislation that are not part of it. At the same time, the Code should provide separate provisions that would regulate issues related to social protection of such a category of subjects of social security law as self­employed persons. That is, it is expedient to reform the social security legislation on the basis of successful foreign experience. It is also necessary to use the positive experience of foreign countries in the process of creating specialized programs for the support and development of self-employment. We are convinced that only under such conditions can most of the problems that arise in the researched area be solved.