Ukraine introduces large fines for indicating gender or religious beliefs in vacancies

01.01.2022, 11:33

State

Starting from January 8, 2022, employers who, when searching for an employee, indicate the desired gender of a person – "only men/only women", as well as age, nationality, religion, will be fined UAH 65 thousand in accordance with article 24-1 of the law of Ukraine on advertising. An exception is specific work that can be performed exclusively by persons of a certain gender.

In addition, if a church or religious organization indicates the employee's religious affiliation in the employee search ad, they may also be fined. This is stated in the message of the site of the "All-Ukrainian Council".

The fine is equal to 10 times the minimum wage, that is, UAH 65,000. Now the minimum wage in Ukraine is UAH 6500 (from October 1, 2022 – UAH 6700).

The fine will be imposed by the State Labor Service based on the results of the audit. The fine is to be paid within 15 days after it is imposed.

The new version of Article 24-1 (advertising of employment services) states:

"No job advertisements shall indicate the age of candidates, offer work exclusively to women or exclusively to men, except for specific work that can be performed exclusively by persons of a certain gender, put forward requirements that give preference to women or men, representatives of a certain race, color (except in cases defined by law, and cases of specific work that can be performed exclusively by persons of a certain gender), in relation to political, religious and other beliefs, membership in trade unions or other associations of citizens, ethnic and social origin, property status, place of residence, on linguistic or other grounds".

The State Labor Service has the right to impose a fine based on the results of the audit. The fine shall be paid within 15 days after it is imposed.

In addition to these changes initiated by the law "On amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Advertising" intended to counter gender discrimination" it introduces some other changes that prohibit stereotypes.

Thus, the law sets out the following definition:

"Gender-discriminatory advertising is the advertising that contains statements and/or images about the intellectual, physical, social or other superiority of one gender over the other and/or the stereotypical role of men and women."

The message of the All-Ukrainian Council website responds to the wording about the stereotypical role of men and women: "A new term is important – "the stereotypical role of men and women", it seems that lawmakers want any statements about the biblical role of women and men to be banned as stereotypical. In addition, all aspects of the value of family or kinship relations may be prohibited, because they can be considered stereotypical."