Нерозголошення комерційної таємниці – одна із важливих умов трудового договору (контракту)

In the conditions of the functioning of the digital (information) society, ensuring the legal protection of trade secrets becomes particularly relevant, which necessitates the need to improve and adapt legal mechanisms to the dynamic development of information technologies. Today, trade secrets are a key factor in the economic development of an enterprise, providing it with competitive advantages, the possibility of market dominance, increased profitability, the creation of barriers to entry for competitors, increased investment attractiveness and effective protection of innovations. At the same time, the current lack of clear legal regulation of this issue in labor legislation necessitates the employer to independently regulate the procedure for protecting trade secrets by adopting local regulations and including relevant provisions in employment contracts in order to prevent its unlawful disclosure by employees. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to study the provisions of employment contracts in terms of non-disclosure of commercial information, identifying key aspects, essential conditions and features that affect the effectiveness of protecting confidential information. It was concluded that although the labor legislation of Ukraine does not yet contain the concept of a trade secret, each employer is obliged to create conditions for its protection and safeguarding in order to prevent a situation where employees disclose a trade secret. The obligation not to disclose a trade secret can be drawn up both directly in the text of the employment contract (contract) and in the form of a separate document - an appendix to the employment contract (contract). In particular, a clause on trade secrets can be reflected in the employment contract (contract) in various forms, for example, as a separate section of the contract itself with a list of information, as an appendix to the contract, or generally through a general indication of the employee’s obligation to comply with internal regulations, where such acts may include an act on trade secrets. Currently, in accordance with the current legislation, the rules of internal labor regulations can oblige employees not to disclose information with limited access, in particular state or commercial secrets.