Working hours and rest time as areas of social protection of employees of the National Police

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of problematic issues of working hours and leisure time as areas of social protection of the National Police. The author analyzes fundamental legal acts, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Constitution of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine "On the National Police", the Law of Ukraine "On Civil Service", the Labor Code, which partially describes the specifics of social protection of National Police and mechanism of its implementation. Theoretical and doctrinal approaches to the study of these categorical concepts are also analyzed.

The author emphasizes that the issue of determining the working hours of police officers has become quite acute. Due to its legal uncertainty, police officers remain completely vulnerable, as working conditions and remuneration are essential and determining conditions for the vast majority of employees. In the Law of Ukraine "On the National Police" the legislator uses the term "office hours", but the definition and essence of this concept is not given. Therefore, based on the basic regulations and doctrinal approaches to the study of this issue, the author proposes to understand the working time period according to the internal schedule of the working day (schedule of shifts), during which the employee performs functional duties in accordance with his job description. In addition, the proposed author's definition of "police leave" is a statutory and confirmed by departmental administrative documents the number of calendar days that the employee uses at its discretion and during which it does not perform its functional duties specified in the job description.

Based on the study, the author concludes that the current Law of Ukraine "On the National Police" needs to be improved by supplementing it with definitions:
1) "working (working) time" and "overtime" in order to clearly distinguish between working (working) time for which the employee receives a salary, and "overtime" (weekend, personal time) during which the employee performed his functional duties (although he should rest) and deserves compensation;
2) "police leave" in order to fill the gap in the legislation;
3) "leave for a participant in hostilities" in order to avoid reference norms and improve the types of police leave;
4) "urgent need to withdraw from leave" in order to prevent uncontrolled and unregulated recall of employees, thereby violating their right to rest.