Draft Labour Code enshrines ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity

A draft of the new Labour Code, which enshrines a direct ban on discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation and gender identity, has been registered in Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, the National LGBTI Consortium reported while outlining the important changes envisaged in the document. The reform is linked to bringing Ukrainian legislation closer to EU law.

Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Facebook page

Ukrainian government submitted the draft of the new Labour Code to the parliament on 2 September 2026. The draft law preserves guarantees of protection against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) in the sphere of labour relations.

“Our parliament included SOGI traits as protected in labour legislation after many fierce debates in 2015. Today, these norms have indeed reduced the level of discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people in the workplace. But while the state operates with two SOGI traits, the European Union recommends a new protection model – now based on four traits: sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics. The latter trait is particularly important for intersex people,” noted Sviatoslav Sheremet, the consortium’s policy and legislation coordinator.

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The National LGBTI Consortium analysed the government’s proposed changes in the context of human rights for LGBTIQ+ people and gender equality. The ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is already present in the current Labour Code of Ukraine. In the new code, it is proposed to move it to Article 5, “Equality of labour rights. Prohibition of discrimination, mobbing (bullying), harassment”.

The protection of people living with HIV also remains. The draft clarifies that the ban on discrimination includes the suspected or actual presence of HIV/AIDS.

A new ground has been added to the list of bases for non-discrimination: pregnancy. In the new code, pregnancy is added to the traits for which local government officials are exempt from attestation. The potential maternity leave has also been increased – it is proposed to replace the norm of “cannot exceed 126 calendar days” with “not less than 126 calendar days”.

In the draft of the new code, the government also proposes a separate definition of what constitutes direct and indirect discrimination. For example, it is proposed to consider discrimination in the workplace as any distinction, exclusion or preference based on protected traits that restricts equal opportunities or equal treatment regarding pay and working conditions, vocational training and employment.

Direct discrimination is when a person is treated less favourably than another person in a similar situation because of a certain trait. Indirect discrimination is when a rule, requirement or practice that is ostensibly the same for everyone actually creates less favourable conditions for a certain group or has a disproportionately negative impact.

“Updating national labour legislation is a complex task, as modern conditions of labour relations have moved away from official regulations. It is not enough to adopt a new Labour Code; there must be public consensus around it regarding the correctness and relevance of its norms,” Sheremet pointed out.

Earlier, the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience drafted a bill proposing to expand the scope of protection against discrimination and add the concepts of “discrimination by association”, “multiple discrimination” and “hate speech” to the basic law. Currently, the existing Law “On the Principles of Preventing and Combating Discrimination in Ukraine” lacks these concepts, which are an integral part of Council Directives 2000/43/EC and 2000/78/EC.

ZMINA earlier also reported that the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the European Union supported draft law No. 13597, which updates the approach to combating discrimination. The document proposes expanding the list of discrimination traits, introducing administrative liability for non-violent discriminatory actions and a separate criminal article for public calls to violence motivated by intolerance. The norms proposed in the document were also approved by the government.

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