Preferential Pension for Reagent Dosing Operators under List No. 1
As is generally known, under the standard rules, a person may retire upon reaching the statutory retirement age and having the required insurance record. But is it possible to retire earlier? Yes. To qualify for early retirement, a person must have been employed in harmful and particularly difficult working conditions included in the lists approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. In particular, such occupations include reagent dosing operators engaged in the beneficiation of ores and sands in the extraction of non-ferrous and precious metals and diamonds (List No. 1).
When can a person retire under List No. 1, including where they have been employed in the occupation described above?
The general requirements for such a pension are:
1) reaching the age of 50;
2) having at least 25 years of insurance record, including at least 10 years of employment under List No. 1.
What does the work of a reagent dosing operator involve? Persons employed in this occupation service feeders, reagent pipelines and dosing installations serving up to four sections and ensure their uninterrupted operation; transfer and distribute incoming reagent solutions among supply tanks and feeding points; perform control measurements of reagent solution concentrations; keep records of reagent solution consumption per unit of time and per tonne of processed material; identify and eliminate malfunctions in the equipment being serviced; and periodically clean reagent feeder tanks of insoluble sediment.
Suppose that a person has worked in the occupation described above for more than 10 years, has more than 25 years of total insurance record and has reached the age of 50. What should they do? The person should collect the required documents and submit them to the relevant territorial office of the Pension Fund of Ukraine. Particular attention should be paid to the employment record book, as it is one of the principal documents confirming periods of employment.
It is particularly important that employment as a reagent dosing operator be properly recorded in the employment record book in order for the relevant period to be recognised as preferential service. An example of an appropriate entry could be: “Employed full-time as a reagent dosing operator engaged in the beneficiation of ores and sands in the extraction of non-ferrous and precious metals and diamonds.”
Unfortunately, in some cases employment record books either do not contain the necessary entries at all or contain entries that have been completed incorrectly. In such circumstances, Ukrainian legislation provides for the possibility of obtaining clarifying certificates confirming that the person was employed in the relevant harmful or particularly difficult working conditions.
At the same time, the Pension Fund of Ukraine may insist on the submission of clarifying certificates even where the employment record book contains properly completed entries. Such requirements may be unlawful. According to established court practice, the employment record book is the primary document confirming a person’s employment history. If its entries make it possible to establish the working conditions and the nature of the work performed, obtaining additional clarifying certificates is generally unnecessary. In such circumstances, the Pension Fund should not require the applicant to provide additional certificates without sufficient legal grounds.
Therefore, if the Pension Fund has unlawfully refused to grant a preferential pension because of the absence of additional certificates despite sufficient information in the employment record book, such a refusal may be challenged in court.
An example of relevant judicial practice in which the court applied the above approach is the Supreme Court judgment of 27 April 2020 in case No. 648/1613/17.
