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Ukraine - Compensation & Benefit Legislation

CAPITAL

Kiev

 

CLIMATE

Temperate climate continental with Mediterranean climate only on the southern Crimean coast. Precipitation is disproportionately distributed with the highest in the west and north and lesser amounts in the east and southeast. Winters vary from cool along the Black Sea to cold farther inland. Summers are warm across the greater part of the country and hot in the south.

 

LANGUAGES

Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian.

 

LEGAL SYSTEM

Ukraine’s legal system is based on civil law system. There is judicial review of legislative acts.

 

CURRENCY

Ukraine Hryvnia (1 USD = 5.53500 UAH as of April 15, 2002).

 

UKRAINE - COST-OF-LIVING

ERI's Relocation Assessor is a recommended source for cost-of-living data.

 

UKRAINE - EMBASSY/CONSULATES

U.S. Embassy at Kiev

10 Yuria Kotsiubynskyi Street

Kiev, Ukraine 01901

Telephone: [380] (44) 490-4000

Fax: [380] (44) 244-7350

http://www.usemb.kiev.ua/

 

Embassy of Ukraine at Washington D.C.

3350 M Street N.W.

Washington D.C. 20007

Telephone: (202) 333-0606

Fax: (202) 333-0817

http://www.ukremb.com/

 

UKRAINE - HOLIDAYS

UKRAINE - LEAVE

Annual Leave: Minimum 24 days of paid vacation each year.

 

Maternity Leave: 126 days – 100% of pay (paid by social security).

 

UKRAINE - MINIMUM AGE

The minimum employment age is 17. However, in certain nonhazardous industries, enterprises may negotiate with the Government to hire employees between 14 and 17 years of age, with the consent of one parent.

 

(Section 6.d. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Ukraine – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

UKRAINE - MINIMUM REMUNERATION

The minimum monthly wage is 118 hryvnia (approximately $22).

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Ukraine – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

UKRAINE - REMUNERATION

ERI's Geographic and Salary Assessors are recommended sources for international remuneration covering 189 countries.

 

UKRAINE - REPORT OF HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES (2001, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE)

Section 6 Worker Rights

 

a. The Right of Association

 

The Constitution provides for the right to join trade unions in order to defend "professional, social and economic interests;" however, while in principle all workers and civil servants (including members of the armed forces) are free to form unions, in practice the Government discourages certain categories of workers, for example, nuclear power plant employees, from doing so. Under the Constitution, all trade unions have equal status, and no government permission is required to establish a trade union. The Law on Citizens' Organizations (which includes trade unions) stipulates noninterference by public authorities in the activities of these organizations, which have the right to establish and join federations on a voluntary basis. There are both official and independent trade unions.

 

In January 2000, independent unions challenged the 1999 law on trade unions, which replaced Soviet-era legislation, on the grounds that it was unconstitutional. According to the law, to acquire national status a union must have representation in more than half of the regions of the country, or in one-third of the enterprises in a regionally based sector, or have a majority of union members in the sector. National status and registration confer the right to acquire property, to maintain bank accounts, and to enter legally binding agreements. Registration also determines participation of a union in the national collective bargaining agreement with the Government, as well as membership on the Social Insurance Fund Board (see Section 6.b.). Another contentious requirement of the law is mandatory registration with the Justice Ministry.

 

In October 2000, the Constitutional Court ruled that some provisions of the 1999 Labor Union Law were unconstitutional; specifically the court rejected the requirement of the 1999 law that unions register with the Ministry of Justice and the requirement that unions have a certain level of membership and regional representation in order to qualify for national status. Although the Constitutional court suspended these provisions of the law, at year's end, the Rada had not passed legislation to make the law conform to the ruling. On December 13, the Rada adopted amendments that continued to require unions to register with the Ministry of Justice and to impose numerical and territorial requirements for registration. As of October, the Justice Ministry had not applied administrative sanctions against unregistered unions; however, in a number of instances management denied unregistered trade unions the right to participate in collective bargaining (see Section 6.b). Unlike in the previous year, there were no reports during the year that the Ministry had denied registration to unions not loyal to the Government; however, some independent unions, including the Independent Miners' Union of Ukraine (NPGU) chose not to register because the requirement had been declared unconstitutional. The NPGU reported that management refused to recognize and cooperate with its local affiliates because their national organization was not registered. All unions affiliated with the Federation of Trade Unions (FPU), which maintains strong ties to the Government and inherited assets from the official Soviet unions, and 14 independent unions are registered. The International Labor Organization (ILO) has stated that the labor union law violates ILO Convention 87 on the freedom of association.

 

Although the FPU often coordinates its activity with the Government, it continued to work independently of the Government some of the time and advocated workers' right to strike. The FPU has supported the protests of some professions over unpaid wages; however, most FPU affiliates work closely with management. Enterprise managers are free to join the FPU. In 1997 the FPU leadership created a political party, the All-Ukrainian Party of Workers, which remained virtually indistinguishable from the FPU.

 

Independent unions provide an alternative to the official unions in many sectors of the economy. There were 40 FPU-affiliated unions and 24 independent unions. The NPGU, unions representing pilots, civil air traffic controllers, locomotive engineers, aviation ground crews, and other unions operate either independently or within one of three national confederations. While exact membership is unknown, there were estimated to be approximately 3 million members of non-FPU members and 14 million members of FPU-affiliated unions. Independent unions have been denied a share of the former Soviet trade unions' huge property and financial holdings, especially the social insurance benefits funds, a Soviet-era legacy on whose boards FPU-affiliated unions hold the majority of seats. Independent trade union leaders also have complained that state representatives have sought to influence union votes and pressure members to report on union activities. Independent trade union leaders also report that they are subject regularly to surveillance by law enforcement authorities.

 

According to additional provisions of the law, management no longer is obligated to provide free accommodations and telephone lines to unions. However, the law gives unions a say in labor safety and in the allotment of newly built public housing. These aspects of the law have not been contested.

 

The Constitution provides for the right to strike "to defend one's economic and social interests," but states that strikes must not jeopardize national security, public health, or the rights and liberties of others. The law prohibits strikes that jeopardize life or health, the environment, or that can hinder disaster, accident, or epidemic-related operations. The law does not prohibit specifically strikes based on political demands; however, it prohibits strikes based on demands to change the constitutional order, state borders, or the administrative division of the country, as well as on demands that infringe on human rights. The law does not extend the right to strike to members of the procuracy, judiciary, armed forces, security services, law enforcement agencies, and public servants. The law extends the right to strike to employees of "continuing process plants," for example, metallurgical factories, provided that they give 15 days' advance notice of their intent to strike. According to the International

Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) 1999 report, the Law on Transportation does not allow strikes in the transport sector. Workers who strike in prohibited sectors can receive imprisonment of up to 3 years.

 

The Government has relied on the prosecutors and the courts to deal with strikes that it considered illegal. The law does not extend the immunity from discipline or dismissal to strikers who take part in strikes that later are declared illegal by the courts. A union that organizes an illegal strike is liable for strike-inflicted losses. According to official statistics, there were 49 strikes during the year. In 2000 an estimated 20,600 workers from 76 enterprises participated in strikes.

 

There are no official restrictions on the right of unions to affiliate with international trade union bodies. The NPGU is a member of the Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers' Union.

 

b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

 

According to the law, joint worker-management commissions should resolve problems concerning wages, working conditions, and the rights and duties of management at the enterprise level. The Law of Collective Bargaining provides the right to collective bargaining; however, overlapping spheres of responsibility frequently impeded the collective bargaining process, and the manner in which the collective bargaining law is applied prejudices the bargaining process against independent unions and favors the official unions (affiliates of the FPU). Most workers are not informed that they are not obligated to join the official union. Renouncing membership in the official union and joining an independent union can be bureaucratically onerous and typically is discouraged by management. Under the 1999 trade union law, an independent union also can be removed easily from the collective bargaining process at the enterprise level. Under earlier legislation, if several unions at an enterprise failed to agree on joint representation, the larger union--that is the FPU--represented labor in the bargaining process. The 1999 law failed to address this problem.

 

The Government, in a negotiation with trade unions in which all unions were invited to participate, established wages in each industrial sector in the form of a General Collective Bargaining Agreement signed in April. The Law on Labor Disputes Resolution provides for the establishment of an arbitration service and a National Mediation and Reconciliation Service to mediate labor disputes. According to official statistics, the service resolved 264 out of 554 labor disputes during the year. The collective bargaining law prohibits antiunion discrimination. Under the law, discrimination disputes involving a union that is barred from participating in a collective bargaining agreement should be resolved by the courts. There have been cases in which such disputes were not settled in a fair and equitable manner.

 

There are no export processing zones.

 

c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

 

The Constitution and the Labor Code prohibit forced and compulsory labor; however, women were trafficked abroad for sexual exploitation (see Section 6.f.). Human rights groups described as compulsory labor the common use of army conscripts and youths in the alternative service for refurbishing and building private houses for army and government officials (see Section 1.c.).

 

The law does not prohibit specifically forced and bonded labor by children, and girls were trafficked abroad for sexual exploitation (see Section 6.f.).

 

d. Status of Child Labor Practices and Minimum Age for Employment

 

The minimum employment age is 17; however, in certain nonhazardous industries, enterprises may negotiate with the Government to hire employees between 14 and 17 years of age, with the consent of one parent. The State Department for Monitoring Enforcement of Labor Legislation within the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy is responsible for enforcing child labor laws and was generally effective; however, some children under the minimum employment age worked in the informal sector. According to research conducted by the Ukrainian Institute of Social Research in cooperation with the ILO, 6.8 percent of children between the ages of 7 and 17 work. In August an interagency commission released a report on the status of child labor in the country and the Government's steps to minimize it.

 

The new Criminal Code prescribes up to 5 years in prison for involving children in criminal activities, drinking, begging, prostitution, gambling, or other exploitation.

 

The Government does not prohibit specifically forced and bonded labor by children, and girls were trafficked abroad for sexual exploitation (see Section 6.f.).

 

e. Acceptable Conditions of Work

 

Work conditions and pay levels were impacted adversely by the overall poor state of the economy. The minimum monthly wage is approximately $22 (118 hryvnia), and the minimum monthly pension is $6.37 (34 hryvnia). The minimum wage is enforced in the official economy for employees who work full time; however, Parliament declared that the official subsistence level for the year was approximately $58 (311 hryvnia) per month. The average monthly salary is $54 (290 hryvnia), which does not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family. While the government sector has repaid wage arrears in most areas, in some parts of the country teachers had not been paid monetary benefits (back holiday pay and service bonuses) due to them. Official estimates placed wage arrears at $565 million (2.99 billion hryvnia) as of December. Wage arrears remained a problem in the private sector (which includes large enterprises in which the State is a shareholder). Official estimates placed arrears at 3.4 billion hryvnia as of October. The national pension system repaid all arrears during 2000. However, average wages are not as low as these statistics suggest, since the untaxed and unreported "shadow economy" is estimated to account for 50 percent of total economic activity. Activity in the shadow economy tends to be concentrated in retail trade and services but touches every sector and provides a means for individuals to supplement their often meager salaries. In rural areas, where reported incomes tend to be the lowest, families subsidize their incomes by growing fruit and vegetables and raising livestock.

 

The Labor Code provides for a maximum 40-hour workweek, a 24-hour period of rest per week, and at least 24 days of paid vacation per year. Stagnation in some industries, for example, in defense, significantly reduced the workweek for some categories of workers.

 

The law contains occupational safety and health standards; however, these frequently are ignored in practice. Lax safety standards and aging equipment caused many serious accidents, resulting in approximately 14,000 work-related injuries for the first half of the year. The number of cases of work-related injuries in the first half of the year was lower than during the same period in 2000 in the coal sector (by 86 percent), in agriculture (by 19 percent), in the construction sector (by 8 percent); however, the number of work-related injuries increased in the chemical and transportation sectors (by 13 percent). According to official statistics, 151 persons died in work-related accidents during the first half of the year, in addition, to mining accidents that killed 261 miners during the first half of the year. In the coal-mining sector, it has been estimated that there are 5.2 deaths for every million tons of coal extracted.

 

In theory workers have a legal right to remove themselves from dangerous work situations without jeopardizing continued employment; however, in reality, independent trade unionists reported that asserting this right would result in retaliation or perhaps dismissal by management.

 

f. Trafficking in Persons

 

The law prohibits trafficking in persons; however trafficking in women and girls is a significant problem. The country is a major country of origin and transit country for women and girls trafficked abroad for sexual exploitation. There were some reports of men and boys being trafficked abroad primarily for labor purposes; however, the majority of trafficking victims are women. No reliable figures are available on the extent of the problem and estimates vary widely. According to official figures, 300 persons contacted law enforcement or consular authorities during the year and identified themselves as victims of trafficking; however, this number represents a small fraction of the real number of women trafficked abroad. The IOM estimated in 1998 that 100,000 citizens had been trafficked abroad since 1991. In 1999 an NGO, La Strada, estimated that 420,000 women had been trafficked abroad between 1991 and 1998. There were reports that local officials abetted or assisted organized crime groups involved in trafficking.

 

Women and girls are trafficked to Central and Western Europe (including Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Bosnia, Poland, Slovenia, Greece, Turkey, and Yugoslavia), the United States, and the Middle East (including Israel and Lebanon) for sexual exploitation; there also are reports that women and girls are trafficked from the country to Australia, Japan, and South Africa. Women who are trafficked out of the country often are recruited by firms operating abroad and subsequently are taken out of the country with legal documentation. They are solicited with promises of work as waitresses, dancers, or housemaids, or are invited by marriage agencies allegedly to make the acquaintance of a potential bridegroom. Once abroad the women find the work to be very different from what was represented to them initially. There are credible reports of widespread involvement of organized crime in trafficking.

 

Trafficking is becoming a higher priority for law enforcement agencies, but these agencies often lack the financial and personnel resources to combat well-established criminal organizations that run trafficking operations. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has established special antitrafficking units at the national and oblast levels. These units became operational in 2000; however, they have had a limited impact. They suffer from lack of adequate resources and often are tasked to work on cases involving other crimes.

 

 

UKRAINE - SOCIAL SECURITY

Social Security Office of International Programs:

 

http://www.ssa.gov/SSA_Home.html

 

UKRAINE - STANDARD WORKWEEK

The Labor Code provides for a maximum 40-hour workweek, a 24-hour period of rest per week, and at least 24 days of paid vacation per year. Stagnation in some industries, for example, in defense, significantly reduced the workweek for some categories of workers.

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Ukraine – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)