SCIENTIFIC-PEDAGOGICAL DUAL EMPLOYMENT

Abstract

The research is focused on an essential aspect of scientific-pedagogical dual employment, namely, how to avoid conflict of interest. The purpose of the article is to define the “conflict of interest” term in the Law of Ukraine “On scientific and scientific-technical activity” and to suggest the relevant changes to the legislation.
In view of the possible legal settings of the legal relations simultaneously affecting an educator, the scope of powers and the private interests of the employee, there are the situations that give rise to conflict of interest in dual employment (in the same company or in different ones), concurrent employment, joint work with close people or the persons associated with the employee through friendships or other out-of-office relationships, works or services delivered under civil agreements, participation in other legal relations wherein conflict of interest is a possibility.
The legislation governing dual employment of scientific-pedagogical employees puts forward the condition to avoid conflict of interest, but doesn’t provide any means of conflict management, thus substantially narrowing down the possibilities of a scientific-pedagogical employee in dual employment. A quality method of management (settlement) of the conflict of interest makes both the employer and the scientific-pedagogical employee happy. The paper suggests the changes to be made to the legislation in this regard.
The article analyzes the statistics on the educators’ administrative liability for violation of the laws in the researched area. Notably, the author points out to the gap in the legal regulation of the scientific-pedagogical work unrelated to dual employment. As a result of the legislative reform, the regulatory act listing the jobs that may not be considered dual employment has been canceled. Currently, the issue is partially settled through another regulatory act. Given that it is necessary to continuously update such list of the jobs as above-mentioned, it is recommended, for example, that the Law of Ukraine “On scientific and scientific-technical activity” should refer to the procedural act to be approved by the by-laws. Also, the article defines the term of “conflict of interest” and suggests including this definition into the specified law. The author believes that it is necessary to study the ways to avoid and manage the conflict of interest by a dual employment scientific-pedagogical employee.