Board chairman of a private joint-stock company: employment ended as of 2016, State Register entry removed

The client’s problem

The chairman of the management board of a private joint-stock company approached DSA GROUP. Back on 8 January 2016 he had submitted to the company’s sole shareholder a resignation letter (Article 38(1) of the Labour Code of Ukraine) and a request to convene an extraordinary general meeting. The meeting was never held, and a repeat request in March 2025 also came to nothing. As a result, for years the client formally remained the company’s head and was listed as such in the Unified State Register.

What we did

The task was not only to end the employment relationship but also to have the information on the client as the company’s head and representative removed from the Unified State Register.

• We brought a claim in the commercial court to have the employment relationship recognised as terminated and to oblige the state registrar to remove the entry.
• On 9 December 2025 the Commercial Court of the City of Kyiv partly upheld the claim. It recognised the employment as terminated only from the date the judgment became final and refused to order the change to the register.
• We appealed. Our position: the employment ended on 22 January 2016, and the proper remedy was to oblige the registrar to make the changes.

Outcome

By a ruling of 19 August 2026, the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal allowed the appeal. The court recognised the employment relationship as terminated from 22 January 2016 under Article 38(1) of the Labour Code of Ukraine. It obliged the Shevchenkivska District State Administration in Kyiv to remove from the Unified State Register the information on the client as the company’s head and representative. The ruling has been enforced: the register entry has been cancelled.