How to recover unpaid wages from an employer

When this is needed

This guide applies if an em­ploy­er has not paid salary, a bonus, an al­lowance, down­time pay or another com­po­nent of wages due. In Kyiv cases, the problem often arises after a company changes owners, closes an office, moves an em­ploy­ee to remote work or dis­miss­es them without a clear payslip.

Use the spe­cif­ic routes for in­di­vid­ual com­po­nents of the debt: night work pay is checked against doc­u­ment­ed hours from 22:00 to 06:00, while down­time pay not caused by the em­ploy­ee depends on the reason, order, sched­ule and wage rate. You can es­ti­mate these amounts sep­a­rate­ly with the night work pay cal­cu­la­tor or down­time pay cal­cu­la­tor, keeping their dif­fer­ent legal grounds sep­a­rate.

If the dif­fer­ence relates specif­i­cal­ly to working days during a trip, first check busi­ness-trip pay sep­a­rate­ly: the com­par­i­son uses average and current daily earn­ings, while per diem and expense re­im­burse­ments are not treated as wages.

Start with a table rather than a rough total: month, amount accrued and due, amount ac­tu­al­ly paid, payment date and balance. Mark sep­a­rate­ly any pay­ments whose legal nature is dis­put­ed. If the em­ploy­er also dis­missed you, dis­tin­guish a claim for money from chal­leng­ing an un­law­ful dis­missal.

If the dis­crep­an­cy con­cerns va­ca­tion pay, first check the va­ca­tion pay cal­cu­la­tion and compare it with the va­ca­tion pay cal­cu­la­tor. A sep­a­rate guide to sick leave pay­ments covers dis­put­ed in­ca­pac­i­ty pay­ments; do not apply a wage cal­cu­la­tion without check­ing what kind of payment is in­volved.

Applicable time limits and procedure

To iden­ti­fy the ap­plic­a­ble rule, use the time-limit cal­cu­la­tor for wage claims. Fol­low­ing Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court De­ci­sion No. 1-r/2025, the three-month limit in part one of Article 233 of the Labour Code no longer re­stricts an em­ploy­ee’s claim for wages and other amounts due.

A dif­fer­ent rule applies to all amounts due on dis­missal: three months from the day the em­ploy­ee re­ceives written notice of the amounts accrued and paid. If the em­ploy­er did not provide it, do not au­to­mat­i­cal­ly use the date of the dis­missal order instead. Request the notice in writing and keep proof of the request.

If the final payment was delayed, sep­a­rate­ly check the pro­ce­dure for re­cov­er­ing average earn­ings under Article 117 of the Labour Code and keep this com­pen­sa­tion dis­tinct from the un­der­ly­ing debt.

For events before 11 De­cem­ber 2025, older periods of arrears and dates over­lap­ping with quar­an­tine rules, the ap­plic­a­ble ver­sions of the law and pro­ce­dur­al history need sep­a­rate review.

Steps to take

First, request payslips, a state­ment of accrued and paid wages, time sheets and a written ex­pla­na­tion of the debt from the em­ploy­er. Send the request in a way that leaves proof: to an of­fi­cial email address with a qual­i­fied elec­tron­ic sig­na­ture, by reg­is­tered mail or with a receipt ac­knowl­edg­ing de­liv­ery.

Next, prepare a month-by-month cal­cu­la­tion. For each amount, iden­ti­fy doc­u­men­tary support: salary under the staffing table or con­tract, a bonus order, a time sheet or agreed over­time hours. A bank state­ment shows actual pay­ments but does not by itself explain what the em­ploy­er should have accrued.

If the dispute con­cerns doc­u­ment­ed over­time hours paid at an hourly rate, sep­a­rate­ly check the double-pay cal­cu­la­tion and the pro­ce­dure for claim­ing this payment. Do not treat hours beyond the sched­ule as over­time under sum­ma­rized working-time ac­count­ing without check­ing the entire ref­er­ence period.

Then define what the claim is about. Wages, com­pen­sa­tion for loss of part of income, average earn­ings for delayed final payment, sev­er­ance pay and re­in­state­ment are dif­fer­ent claims. Each needs its own cal­cu­la­tion and legal basis.

To de­ter­mine venue in Kyiv, check the re­spon­dent’s address and your own reg­is­tered place of res­i­dence or stay. Article 28 of the Civil Pro­ce­dure Code gives em­ploy­ees an al­ter­na­tive venue for em­ploy­ment claims, but verify the spe­cif­ic dis­trict court as of the filing date.

What to check before filing

Match the em­ploy­er’s name and code in the con­tract and orders against the Unified State Reg­is­ter. A trade name, office or manager may not be the proper de­fen­dant. Check whether the legal entity is being dis­solved, is in bank­rupt­cy or is subject to a pro­ce­dure that changes how claims must be filed.

Make sure the amounts in the relief sought match the table and ev­i­dence. Do not count taxes twice: explain clearly whether the amount is gross, before de­duc­tions, or the unpaid balance after de­duc­tions.

If the debt has been accrued and is undis­put­ed, you can discuss order pro­ceed­ings under the Civil Pro­ce­dure Code with a lawyer. If the em­ploy­er dis­putes the em­ploy­ment re­la­tion­ship, hours, bonus or amount itself, a full claim and ex­am­i­na­tion of the ev­i­dence will usually be needed.

When to consult a lawyer

A lawyer is es­pe­cial­ly useful if the work was in­for­mal, part of the wages was paid in cash, the company changed its address, started winding up or the debt is tied to dis­missal. The risk is higher if the em­ploy­er with­holds doc­u­ments or calls pay­ments a “bonus” without clear cri­te­ria.

For a case in Kyiv or Kyiv Oblast, it is useful to verify the de­fen­dant, dis­trict court, debt periods and each ad­di­tion­al claim before filing. This can keep a clear wage claim from be­com­ing an over­loaded lawsuit with con­flict­ing time limits.