THE ESSENCE AND LEGAL NATURE OF THE CATEGORY OF «MINOR» IN LABOUR LAW

The article attempts to analyze the essence and legal nature of the category of a minor in labour law. Due to a clearly defined conceptual and categorical apparatus it is possible to carry out theoretical knowledge of a particular legal phenomenon, process. By analyzing both international legal acts and national legislation of Ukraine, the author tries to compare and make a logical correlation between the concepts of «minor», «child», «youth». The analysis and interpretation of these concepts, in the context of the specifics of labour relations has been carried out. An attempt is made to justify the perspective that the most general concept is «child», which is not a purely legal but also a social concept and includes both the category of «minors» and partly the category of «youth». The author concludes that the concept of «minority» is purely legal, because it defines a specific age limit, after which a person acquires a different legal status, which in turn affects its legal personality. The concept of «youth» refers both to persons who have not yet reached the majority age and to persons who are legally considered adults. In view of this, the author considers it not entirely correct to combine the category of «minors» and «youth» in one chapter of the Labour Code. The emphasis was placed on the necessity to improve the conceptual apparatus of labour law by legal implementation of the category of « a minor as a subject of labour relations», which will make it possible to further implement the special status of this category of persons, which is directly related to age, physical, mental development and affects their scope of rights and responsibilities as participants in labour relations.