To the Issue of General Criteria for Reimbursement of Moral Harm Caused to an Employee

Abstract

Abstract. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that in modern conditions, most labor disputes related, among other things, to reinstatement, compensation for health damage, etc., are accompanied by claims for compensation for moral damage caused to the employee. This confirms the need for the development of the institution of compensation for moral damages in labor law, in particular, the optimization of the system of criteria for its determination. The scientific article aims to study the general criteria for assessing moral damage caused to an employee. Methodology. In the process of writing the work, general and special methods of conducting research were used, namely: dialectical, monographic, systemic-structural, logical, normative-dogmatic methods and the method of legal modeling. Thanks to the use of the specified methodological toolkit, the works of scientists devoted to the study of the issue of determining the criteria for assessing moral damage in general and in labor law in particular were analyzed. It has been proven that both general and special criteria should be taken into account when determining the amount of moral damage compensation. The general criteria defined in the Civil Code of Ukraine are considered. The degree of depth of suffering is characterized as one of the key criteria for assessing moral damage, according to which they can have insignificant, significant, strong, unbearable, destructive manifestations. Types of suffering are distinguished depending on their nature, which also have a certain gradation: simple experiences; mental suffering; suffering associated with physical pain. Particular attention is paid to the peculiarities of the application of the specified criteria during consideration of labor disputes. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that the authors proposed criteria for assessing the depth of suffering and classifying their varieties in view of labor legislation. It has been proven that when assessing moral damage, the court must take into account not only the degree, but also the form of the employer’s fault. The practical significance lies in the formulation of author’s additions and proposals to the existing system of general criteria.

Keywords: employer; labor dispute; fault; suffering; compensation; responsibility; civil legislation of Ukraine.