Delayed final pay after dismissal: how to recover compensation

When this applies

This guide applies if, after dis­missal, the em­ploy­er did not pay wages, com­pen­sa­tion for unused annual leave, sev­er­ance pay, or another amount due within the time set by Article 116 of the Labour Code. For a case in Kyiv, first iden­ti­fy the legal entity that em­ployed you: the office name, trade name, or manager may not be the proper de­fen­dant.

Split the claim into two parts. The first is the unpaid balance of the final set­tle­ment itself. The second is pos­si­ble average earn­ings for the period of delay under Article 117 of the Labour Code. Use the cal­cu­la­tor for com­pen­sa­tion for delayed final pay, but include its result in a claim only after check­ing the em­ploy­er’s fault, any dispute, and the un­der­ly­ing records.

If you re­signed, keep proof that your res­ig­na­tion notice was de­liv­ered to the em­ploy­er. The notice period cal­cu­la­tor can help dis­tin­guish the usual two weeks from the actual dis­missal date; for a dispute over the final set­tle­ment, you will then need the dis­missal order and written notice of the pay­ments.

Applicable time limit or procedure

Under Article 116, the em­ploy­er must make the final set­tle­ment on the day of dis­missal. If the em­ploy­ee did not work that day, the amounts due must be paid no later than the day after the em­ploy­ee re­quests the set­tle­ment. Before payment, the em­ploy­er must provide written notice of the amounts accrued and paid.

Article 117 links average earn­ings for delay to the em­ploy­er’s fault and failure to pay the amounts due by the re­quired dead­line. The current limit is no more than six cal­en­dar months. This does not mean a fixed 180 days: first de­ter­mine the cal­en­dar bound­aries of the actual delay, then count the working days el­i­gi­ble for payment ac­cord­ing to the em­ploy­ee’s sched­ule.

For a claim for all amounts due upon dis­missal, part two of Article 233 sets a three-month period start­ing on the day the em­ploy­ee re­ceives written notice of the amounts accrued and paid. Under Article 234, a court may re­in­state a missed dead­line for valid reasons, but the law sets an outside limit of one year from receipt of a copy of the order or written notice. If the delay began before July 19, 2022, do not apply these rules me­chan­i­cal­ly: compare the ap­plic­a­ble ver­sions of the law, dates, and claims sep­a­rate­ly.

Steps to take

Ask in writing for the notice under Article 116, a full payslip, and copies of the records used to cal­cu­late the amounts. Keep proof of sending or de­liv­ery. If part of the amount was paid, enter each payment in a table with its date, purpose, and re­main­ing balance.

Check average daily earn­ings under para­graphs 2–4 and 8 of Pro­ce­dure No. 100. Do not sub­sti­tute the salary rate or average bank deposit. You need the correct cal­cu­la­tion period, el­i­gi­ble pay­ments, and time ac­tu­al­ly worked.

Mark the day the em­ploy­er should have settled, the date of actual payment or the date through which you cal­cu­late the claim, and cut off any part ex­ceed­ing six cal­en­dar months. Count the em­ploy­ee’s sched­uled working days only within that period.

If the em­ploy­er accepts one part of the debt but dis­putes a bonus, leave com­pen­sa­tion, or another payment, do not present the entire amount as undis­put­ed. If the claim is partly granted, the court or other body re­solv­ing the dispute de­ter­mines the com­pen­sa­tion for the delay.

What to check before filing

Make sure the relief re­quest­ed matches the table. The final set­tle­ment debt and average earn­ings for the delay should be on sep­a­rate lines, and each com­po­nent of the debt should be sup­port­ed by an order, con­tract, time sheet, payslip, or other rel­e­vant ev­i­dence.

Check the date of the written notice, not only the date of the dis­missal order or last working day. If the notice was not pro­vid­ed, doc­u­ment your request for it, but do not treat the missing doc­u­ment as a reason to wait in­def­i­nite­ly: ev­i­dence, sched­ules, and payment records can become harder to obtain over time.

For a claim in Kyiv, verify the em­ploy­er’s EDRPOU code and current address, whether al­ter­na­tive venue is avail­able for the labour dispute, and the ter­ri­to­r­i­al ju­ris­dic­tion of the spe­cif­ic court on the filing date. If the company is in bank­rupt­cy or dis­so­lu­tion pro­ceed­ings, the route for the claim may differ.

When to consult a lawyer

A lawyer is es­pe­cial­ly useful if the em­ploy­er dis­putes part of the final set­tle­ment, refuses to provide doc­u­ments, the delay crosses July 19, 2022, or the three-month period has already expired. Un­de­clared work, cash pay­ments, a change of em­ploy­er in the records, and company bank­rupt­cy also require sep­a­rate as­sess­ment.

For a dispute in Kyiv or Kyiv Oblast, it is useful to check three things before filing: the debt table, the cal­cu­la­tion of working days within the six-cal­en­dar-month limit, and ev­i­dence of the em­ploy­er’s fault. This helps avoid pre­sent­ing a cal­cu­la­tor’s arith­metic result as an amount au­to­mat­i­cal­ly owed.