VAPNIARCHUK B. Scientific Employees as Special Subjects of Labor Law.

This dissertation examines a scientific employee as a special subject of labor law (defined as a natural person with specialized labor legal capacity who conducts scientific, technical, organizational, or pedagogical research activities under an employment contract in accordance with labor and specialized legislation, and to whom general labor law protections apply). The research characterizes scientific employees through the following features: 1) engagement in specialized scientific, technical, organizational, or pedagogical work; 2) regulation through both specialized and general legislation; 3) a legal status combining scientific activity rights with standard employee protections; 4) recognition as natural persons under law; 5) distinct professional duties and functions; 6) specialized employment relationship procedures; 7) access to standard labor law protections. The labor law status of scientific employees as subjects of scientific activity is established as a legally defined framework of state-guaranteed rights and obligations, governed by both general and specialized legislation. This status encompasses labor legal capacity, subjective labor rights, and legal obligations arising from scientific activities. The research identifies distinctive features of scientific workers' labor law status that differentiate them from other employee categories, including mandatory competitive selection procedures, regular performance attestation, and professional development requirements that serve as mechanisms for maintaining professional competence. The defining legal characteristics of scientific employees include: possession of at least a master's degree, engagement in professional-level scientific, technical, organizational, or pedagogical activities under employment contract terms, and demonstrated competence through attestation regardless of academic credentials. It is noted that the implementation of scientific workers' right to work is facilitated through a complex, multi-faceted mechanism, with legal guarantees as a key component. These guarantees enable scientists to feel protected from adverse circumstances and constitute a necessary condition for their professional activities. The legal guarantees for scientific employees are proposed to be categorized into those ensuring: (a) entry into employment relations; (b) unhindered exercise of labor rights in employment and related legal relations; (c) right to restoration of violated labor rights. A proposal has been made to amend the Law of Ukraine "On Scientific and Scientific-Technical Activity" to include the right to decent working conditions among the fundamental rights of scientific workers and to establish legislative guarantees ensuring decent work in the scientific sphere. The analysis of international legal regulation of scientific workers' labor activities in the European Union and Ukraine concludes that Ukrainian legislators face the important task of constructing a qualitatively new legislative framework in labor law that would align with European labor standards, including the organization of scientific workers' labor. Special attention should be paid to legal support for scientific activities at both general and local levels. Given that current legal regulation of scientific activity in the European Union is more developed than in Ukraine, as the rule-making powers of scientific institutions in Ukraine are legally limited, local acts cannot modify provisions of higher legal force. Meanwhile, in the European Union, research infrastructures can independently regulate legal relations with scientists without mandatory correlation with national legislation, due to the international nature of these infrastructures formed with the participation of several member states. The analysis notes that scientific workers' labor relations are uniquely regulated through a combination of centralized and local governance, with each scientific institution maintaining some regulatory autonomy. While the Labor Code of Ukraine serves as the primary regulatory framework, its general provisions do not fully address the specifics of scientific sector employment. This necessitates additional specialized legislation, including the Laws of Ukraine "On Scientific and Scientific-Technical Activity," "On Higher Education," and various subsidiary regulatory acts. Despite comprehensive legislative coverage of scientific workers' labor relations, many provisions remain declarative and incompletely implemented. This has resulted in inadequate modernization of scientific legal frameworks and ineffective sector management.