Liability for violations of workers’ safety and health requirements at work

Draft Law #16070 of September 14, 2026

Initiator: submitted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

Who is affected: employers and persons responsible for organizing occupational safety at an enterprise; workers; the State Labor Service of Ukraine.

Summary:

• replaces the post-Soviet concept of “labor protection” with the European model of “safety and health of workers at work,” focused on the individual worker;
• broadens the definition of the liable party: liability rests with the employer or the person entrusted with ensuring the organization, implementation, and observance of safety requirements, if the violation caused harm to the victim’s health;
• adds the worker to the range of subjects of the crime: liability may now be borne not only by the employer but also by a worker who violated the conditions for performing hazardous work;
• vests the State Labor Service with the power to hear the relevant cases and establishes a detailed scale of fines depending on the inspector’s position (state inspector — chief state inspector — head of a territorial body — head of the central body) and the type of violation — from 25 to 600 tax-free minimum incomes (from UAH 425 to UAH 10,200).

What is right:

• the draft law aligns the provisions on administrative and criminal liability with the new model of workers’ safety regulation proposed in Draft Law #10147. This transition from the traditional approach to labor protection to the European model of workers’ safety and health shifts the emphasis from regulating working conditions to comprehensive prevention of occupational risks and protection of workers’ life and health;
• extending liability to the worker (not only the employer) more accurately reflects the real distribution of responsibility in hazardous work;
• a detailed scale of administrative fines by inspector position is a more transparent approach than a single fine regardless of the level of the official.