Collective agreement as a form of regulation of social and labor relations: features of content

The article considers one of the basic local acts of enterprises, institutions, organizations, which is designed to regulate labor and socio-economic relations between employees and the employer – a collective agreement and features of its content. It is noted that a collective agreement is one of the most important internal regulatory legal acts, which is concluded on the basis of current legislation, accepted by the parties to obligations in order to regulate production, labor and socio-economic relations, coordinate the interests of employees, owners and bodies authorized by them. It is concluded that a collective agreement combines the features of both a contract and a regulatory legal act. As a contract, it is concluded after negotiations, contains binding conditions, and is valid for a specified period. At the same time, the presence of regulatory provisions (the regulatory part) distinguishes it from other types of contracts and makes it possible to consider a collective agreement as a source of law. Thus, a collective agreement is an act of local regulation that specifies the relations between the owner or the body authorized by him and the collective of employees on issues of economic and social development, taking into account the specific conditions of a separate enterprise, institution, organization, which has its own content and structure, which is made up of its constituent elements, links that are filled with specific content. Its main purpose is to regulate labor and socio-economic relations between employees and the employer. It is noted that in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On Collective Agreements and Contracts” dated 23.02.2023 No. 2937-IX, for the first time at the legislative level, the indicative content of collective agreements was expanded, and a rather flexible approach to the mandatory content of the collective agreement, which the parties determine within the limits of their competence, is also provided. Provisions on the organization of production and labor, prevention of mass layoffs, labor rationing and remuneration, guarantees for the activities of trade union organizations, and others that were mandatory in collective agreements are now provided for at the discretion of the parties, that is, they are not mandatory for inclusion in the agreement.