Legal enforcement of encouragement in local government for employees: essence, problems, and perspectives

The article researches problems and perspectives of the legal enforcement of local self-government workers encouragement. Problems connected with the insufficient legal regulation of encouragement, in comparison with disciplinary rules, are considered. The problems of imperfection of the domestic legislation in the field of ensuring the motivation of the work of official’s in local government bodies are outlined. The article analyzes the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine, Labor Law Code, Law of Ukraine “On Service in Local Self-Government Bodies”, and international legal acts. It is noted that in the context of the recent codification of labor legislation, it is appropriate to consolidate relations connected with encouragement in the future Labor Code. The analysis of the draft of the new Labor Code, which is under consideration by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Ukrainian parliament), suggests that the authors of the project offer the following features: 1) for success in the work and faithful fulfillment of labor duties for employees, measures of moral and material encouragement can be appliead: the announcement of gratitude, awarding a diploma, payment of a prize, the delivery of a valuable gift, etc., the rules of the internal labor regulations, the regulatory acts of the employer may be set other types of encouragement applicable etc.; 2) for special labor merits, employees may be represented in the prescribed manner before awarding department and state awards. In this regard, it should be noted that the draft of the new Labor Code, essentially duplicating the rules of the Labor Code of Ukraine and giving the employer benefits to the use of labor workers will not promote their effective application. The main tendencies of improvement of the Ukrainian legislation with the proposal of a new definition of the concept of legal support are determined based on the analysis of legal literature. Legislation support on local government services should be carried out by adding system amendments to the draft of the Labor Code of Ukraine, which is under consideration in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and being prepared for the second reading, and also by the way of developing and adopting a new democratic model of the Law of Ukraine “On Local Government Services” on the basis of national and international experience.