Ukrainians have received authorization from the European Court to publicly express indignation at the actions of the employer. The court defended the right of “Aerosvit” employees to strike and awarded them compensation of 20 thousand EUR.

The Judgment of the Court “Tymoshenko and others against Ukraine” states that Ukrainian legislation regulating the right to strike is poor and requires urgent changes. Now Ukrainian airlines and the employees of companies in the transport sector (such as “Ukrzaliznytsia”) obtained a right to fight for their labour rights and to strike.

The European Court also emphasized the importance of protecting the right to strike for aviation companies. In fact, the decision in the Ukrainian case can become a precedent for all the member states of the Council of Europe.

It is to be recalled that Ukrainian courts deprived “Aerosvit” employees of the right to protest. It turned out that employees of the air transport sector cannot go on strike in defence of their labour rights, even in connection with considerable arrears of wages, poor working conditions etc.

It should be noted that the International Organization “The European Trade Union Confederation” and the national trade unions (Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine) supported protection of the right of employees of Ukrainian air transport sector to strike. They sent a detailed analysis of international legislation governing the right to protests to Strasbourg.

The case was supported by the Strategic Litigations Fund of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. The lawyers of Counsellors actively participated in the case.