PROTECTION OF LABOR RIGHTS OF WHISTLEBLOWERS: INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS AND CURRENT TRENDS IN JUDICIAL PRACTICE IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The contemporary development of anti-corruption policy and the increasing role of public oversight mechanisms have intensified attention to the issue of legal protection of persons who report corruption-related offenses. Particular relevance is attached to ensuring the labour rights of whistleblowers, as it is within labour relations that they face the greatest risks of adverse treatment, including retaliation, discrimination, and other forms of pressure. This necessitates establishing effective legal mechanisms for their protection as an essential component of safeguarding the public interest. The subject of the study is the international standards for the protection of whistleblowers, their content and legal nature, as well as the peculiarities of their implementation into the national legal system of Ukraine. Special attention is paid to the labour dimension of the legal status of whistleblowers, the definition of the categories of persons subject to protection, and the guarantees aimed at preventing adverse measures in the sphere of labour relations. The study establishes that international standards for whistleblower protection are of a comprehensive nature, combining institutional, procedural, and substantive legal guarantees. At the same time, the formal compliance of national legislation with these standards does not ensure their effective implementation, as evidenced by the gap between legal regulation and its practical application. It is determined that judicial practice plays a key role in overcoming this gap, as it specifies the content of legal guarantees and develops approaches to assessing the lawfulness of employers’ actions. At the same time, a number of problems affecting the effectiveness of protection have been identified, including limited compensation mechanisms and deficiencies in the procedures for exercising whistleblowers’ rights. The generalization of the results indicates that the protection of whistleblowers’ labour rights constitutes a complex legal institution, the effectiveness of which depends on the coherence between international standards and national judicial practice, ensuring an adequate level of protection of whistleblowers’ rights in Ukraine.