Preferential Pension for Feeder Operators Engaged in Crushing under List No. 1
As a general rule, an old-age pension is granted upon reaching the statutory retirement age and having the required insurance record. However, certain categories of workers are entitled to retire earlier. This applies to persons 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 feeder operators engaged in crushing during the beneficiation of ores and sands in the extraction of non-ferrous and precious metals and diamonds (List No. 1).
Ukrainian legislation provides the following general requirements for retirement under List No. 1:
1) reaching the age of 50;
2) having at least 25 years of insurance record, including at least 10 years of employment in harmful and particularly difficult working conditions under List No. 1.
What does the work of a feeder operator engaged in crushing involve?
Workers employed in this occupation monitor the operation of apron, belt, vibrating, disc and other types of feeders and start and stop the equipment; regulate the uniform supply of materials to crushers, conveyors, screens, mills, classifiers, drying drums and other machinery; remove foreign objects from the materials being fed; clear material blockages; start and stop feeders and conveyors; clean and lubricate the equipment being serviced; and identify and eliminate minor malfunctions in the operation of the equipment.
If a person meets all the requirements for a preferential pension, they should apply to the Pension Fund of Ukraine and submit the necessary documents. The applicant must prepare a package of documents, one of the most important of which is the employment record book. It confirms the person’s employment history and the relevant periods of service. In particular, it may confirm employment as a feeder operator engaged in crushing.
It is important that employment under List No. 1 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 feeder operator engaged in crushing during the beneficiation of ores and sands in the extraction of non-ferrous and precious metals and diamonds.”
What should a person do if there is no employment record book or if the entries in it have been completed incorrectly? In such cases, it is necessary to obtain clarifying certificates from the relevant enterprises confirming employment in harmful and particularly difficult working conditions. However, if the employment record book contains sufficient and properly completed information, such additional certificates should generally not be required.
Unfortunately, the Pension Fund may nevertheless require applicants to submit clarifying certificates even where the employment record book has been properly completed. Such requirements may have no sufficient basis under the applicable pension legislation.
Ukrainian courts have developed judicial practice according to which, where an employment record book contains entries that make it possible to establish the working conditions and the nature of the work performed, an applicant is not required to obtain additional clarifying certificates. Consequently, courts may declare such actions of the Pension Fund unlawful and require the relevant periods of employment to be included in the applicant’s preferential service.
An example of 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.
