Legal regulation of certain types of social leave in Ukraine and the EU

Legal regulation of certain types of social leave in Ukraine and the EU:this article highlights the basic standards followed and fully supported by the European Union and Ukraine as regards the provision of both maternity and paternity leave, as well as parental leave as a whole notion with its particularities. Moreover, it discloses and explains the important difference between these two notions and provides appropriate European and Ukrainian rules of law. It also contains comparison of the effective laws in labor sphere in Ukraine and existing draft legislation which is currently under consideration in this field by the authorized representatives. The article also considers the most prioritized areas for further amending Ukrainian labor laws and rules to be approved for the support and implementation of these specific laws in this field related to these issues. On a separate note, it gives the bright examples of the relevant experience lived through the European Union member states regarding the term of such leave and ensuring the father’s right to take parental leave alongside the one existing and exercising by mothers. It proves that nowadays the European Union elaborates approaches to work on ensuring a proper balance between responsibilities of people as family members and their career. Based on this, it provides for a gender equality and an equal enjoyment of both mother’s and father’s rights. From what we can currently see in Ukraine, unfortunately, our country nowadays is far from practical implementation of these ideas. However, it should be emphasized that after all our legislation has already stipulated some provisions allowing the fathers to take parental leave (so called paternity leave, as already mentioned). The article also has some considerations concerning other labor guarantees for pregnant women. The presented study allows us to identify areas for improving and facilitating the Ukrainian labor legislation in the nearest future and highlights the best European practices which are definitely useful and helpful in the elaborating and developing a new draft Ukrainian Law "On Labor" to be shortly considered by the parliament.