The thesis contains proofs that specifying in the contract additional grounds for its termination is, so to speak, a kind of specific type of liability for breach of the contract provisions. After all, according to a certain law, hiring an employee, the employer has to sign an contract to be protected from the employee’s failure to perform the job duties. Therefore, to determine more grounds for contract termination seem to be special ways of protection against the employees ‘failure to properly perform their duties, directly specified thereunder.
Even if additional grounds for the contract termination can be stipulated therein, it does not mean that employers may include any ground. Addition in the contract of certain conditions, particularly the grounds for its termination, should take into account the principles of non-discrimination and equality of rights and opportunities in the field of labor, which apply to both employees working under permanent or fixed-term employment contracts and those working under a special fixed-term employment contract. In other words, the limits of the contract content flexibility should be regulated at the legislative level and the framework be clearly defined as a lever to restrain the employer from addition of certain discriminatory conditions to the contract content.
Failure to comply with the fixed-term employment contract provisions shall not serve as a ground for dismissal. For such non-compliance, an employee may only be subject to disciplinary action. Then, non-compliance with the contract provisions, particularly the obligations thereunder, shall be an additional ground for its termination.
Contract termination on the grounds specified thereunder is not a disciplinary sanction, and therefore, the provisions of the Labor Code of Ukraine, determining the order for applying disciplinary sanctions, should not be applied to the dismissal procedure.
Considering the peculiarities of the contractual form of the employment contract, the presence or absence of guilt is not decisive for the contract termination. Determinant in this case is the fact of breach of contract terms, and the determined guilt of the employee only confirms the legality of the order to terminate the contract.
Judicial cases with the employees ‘claims for legality of their dismissal on the grounds specified in the contract should be considered in the general civil jurisdiction courts.
Should the contract have a disclaimer on dismissal of the head for systematic non-fulfillment of the enterprise financial and economic plans and indicators, then in the application of clause 8 of Part 1 of Article 36 of the Labor Code of Ukraine, his/her work should be evaluated in total.
Article 9 of the Labor Code of Ukraine should also apply to contracts, especially with regard to the additional grounds for its termination, determined by its content. In each such case, the grounds determined by the contract for its termination should be analyzed in terms of discriminatory grounds and restriction of the exercise of the right to work.
Provisions of Part 3 of Article 21 of the Labor Code of Ukraine face a general ban on invalidity in view of Article 9 of the Labor Code of Ukraine. Therefore, the contract terms regarding the likelihood of sanctions against the employee and claims for damages related to the employee's failure to perform the professional duties, for example, a fine in the amount of wages for the entire unearned period, should be deemed invalid by virtue of Article9 of the Labor Code of Ukraine.
