Does the court have the right to oblige the employer to complete the evaluation of a mobilized employee for the payment of a bonus — Supreme Court's answer

If the internal acts of the enterprise (collective agreement, shareholder decisions) do not establish specific deadlines for completing the evaluation of individual goals for mobilized employees, and the process itself requires bilateral communication (discussion of results and signing the final evaluation), then the absence of a completed report, provided the employee has not contacted the employer, does not indicate a violation of labor rights. Courts should avoid unnecessary interference in the internal affairs of the company, which are resolved exclusively by decisions of its management bodies, in particular regarding the organization of the personnel evaluation process and the payment of incentive bonuses. This conclusion was made by the Supreme Court in the composition of the panel of judges of the First Judicial Panel of the Cassation Civil Court.

On March 4, 2026, the CCS SC considered in simplified proceedings a cassation appeal by an individual in a case against JSC "State Joint Stock Company "Chornomornaftogaz" regarding the obligation to perform certain actions.

To substantiate the rejected claims, the plaintiff referred to the fact that in March 2022 he was released from work due to conscription for military service during mobilization. The dispute arose over the non-payment of the annual bonus for 2021. The employer explained this by the incompletion of the procedure for evaluating individual goals and key results (OKRs), since the plaintiff did not undergo the stage of discussing the results with the functional manager and did not sign the final evaluation, as required by the shareholder’s decision dated 02.07.2022. The plaintiff considered the management’s inaction unlawful, claimed a conflict of interest of his manager, and asserted that he had the status of a whistleblower.

The court of first instance, whose conclusions were upheld by the appellate court, denied the claim. It motivated its decision by stating that the claims were premature and unproven, and satisfying the claim would lead to interference in the exclusive competence of the company’s management bodies regarding the appointment or removal of officials.

The Supreme Court agreed with the conclusions of the lower courts on the substance of the claims for the following reasons.

Issues of remuneration, including the establishment of bonus conditions and the evaluation of employees' professional qualities, fall within the independent competence of the enterprise.

According to amendments to the collective agreement, the evaluation process for mobilized employees is considered completed only after discussing the results with the employee and signing the final evaluation. Since the case materials did not contain evidence of the plaintiff contacting the employer to request such a discussion (including remotely), the fact of violation of his rights was not confirmed.

The plaintiff’s demands to oblige the defendant to conduct the evaluation in a specific manner, remove the deputy general director from the process, and assign these functions to another person constitute direct interference in internal economic activities.

The court established that the plaintiff did not prove acquiring the status of a whistleblower. Guarantees for the protection of whistleblowers' labor rights apply only if there is a connection between the corruption report and negative measures taken against them.

Such circumstances were not established in this case.

The SC found the calculation of the court fee by the court of first instance erroneous (the claim was divided into four separate ones, although it was one), but this is not grounds for overturning the decision on the merits.

More details and the text of the Supreme Court ruling dated March 4, 2026, in case No. 761/19090/24 (proceeding No. 61-8109sv25) can be found at this link.

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