Consequences of Academic Degrees Deprivation for the Faculty Members of Educational and Research Organizations in the Context of Labor Legislation

The deprivation of academic degrees of employees of educational and scientific organizations has negative consequences for the employer. In addition to the fact that the employer suffers reputational losses, the employer is obliged to make a decision concerning the possibility of continuing an employment relationship with such an employee, since the academic degree confirms the qualification level, and concerning recovery of unreasonably received remuneration, since the academic degree entitles the employees to receive additional payments and participate in grants. The lack of a direct mechanism for resolving this issue violates the balance of interests between the employee and the employer. The purpose of the paper is to identify the negative consequences of deprivation of an academic degree in the context of labor legislation for employees of educational and scientific organizations, including risk assessment for the employer.

The research methodology was based on general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, which made it possible to draw reasonable conclusions about the need to develop a special mechanism for establishing legitimate certainty of labor relations when an employee is deprived of an academic degree. The study used a formal legal method (when referring to the texts of normative legal acts and court decisions).

The doctrine of labor law lacks thorough consideration of the issue due to its relative novelty because of the large number of deprivations of academic degrees that have taken place recently. The author determines two problems related to the consequences of deprivation of an academic degree: termination of an employment contract on the employer’s initiative and recovery of unjust enrichment. The paper justifies the necessity of granting the employer the right to terminate employment contracts with such persons. For the first time, the paper shows the dependence of the consequences of deprivation of an academic degree in the form of the possibility of termination of an employment contract at the employer’s initiative on the office taken by the person deprived of the academic degree, as a result of which the need to change approaches to the balance of rights between the parties to an employment contract is elucidated. The results of the study can be used in the work of educational and scientific organizations whose employees are deprived of academic degrees, in order to avoid procedural errors and violations of workers’ rights, or in judicial practice.

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