THE LABOUR LAW ASPECTS OF STATUS OF A DIRECTOR IN A CORPORATE DEBTOR
The author investigates some peculiarities and problems of legal status of a director of a company as a party to labour relations in bankruptcy procedures. Attention is given to legal norms about removal from office, transfer to another job, dismissal of the director, payment of dismissal compensation to the director while terminating an employment contract under circumstances beyond the director's control. These norms are stipulated in legal acts on labour and bankruptcy and they are not clear and comprehensive. The article especially focuses on the analysis of arbitration case law on bankruptcy, acts of supreme judicial bodies in the sphere of employment regulation. The author considers it possible to differentiate the legal grounds of termination of an employment contract with the director of the corporate debtor depending on the bankruptcy procedures and to remove him/her from office upon request of an official receiver within monitoring and financial recovery procedures, taking into account the director's guilt and violation of the bankruptcy legislation. The article substantiates the expediency of establishing time periods for termination of the employment contract with the director within bankruptcy procedures or for his transfer to another job. According to the case law, if the dismissal compensation for the director of the corporate debtor is unreasonably high, the creditors' interests shall be protected on the basis of the bankruptcy legislation. The dismissal compensation must be fair; its amount shall be determined with the account of financial position of the company and the circumstances of terminating the employment contract with the director. The norms on the labour of the director of the corporate debtor should be systematized in the Labour Code and included into a separate chapter on the peculiarities of regulating labour under restructuring of the company.