Preferential Pension for Hot-Metal Desulfurization Operators under List No. 1
Modern society requires a wide range of products and goods. Unfortunately, meeting these needs often requires people to perform difficult work that may have a significant impact on their health and well-being.
It is no secret that some of the most difficult and hazardous occupations are associated with the extraction and processing of metals, ores and non-metallic minerals.
Work in the mining industry involves considerable risks and is characterised by a number of specific hazards. Rockfalls and collapses remain serious dangers, while breaking, pumping and transporting ore through mine workings, as well as reinforcement operations, may pose significant risks to workers’ health. Major occupational hazards include adverse environmental conditions, dust and toxic gases, noise, vibration and insufficient lighting.
Although machinery and automated systems may eventually perform much of this difficult and hazardous work, today thousands of people in Ukraine continue to work under conditions that may adversely affect their health.
Ukrainian legislation provides certain benefits intended to compensate workers for particularly difficult and harmful working conditions. One of the most important benefits is the possibility of early retirement. Ukrainian pension legislation provides for two main lists of occupations and types of work that may qualify for an old-age pension on preferential terms: List No. 1 and List No. 2.
List No. 1 includes jobs, occupations, positions and categories involving underground work and work under particularly harmful and particularly difficult conditions, where full-time employment may provide the right to an old-age pension on preferential terms.
List No. 2 includes jobs, occupations, positions and categories involving harmful and difficult working conditions, where full-time employment may also provide the right to an old-age pension on preferential terms.
List No. 1 includes, among other occupations, hot-metal desulfurization furnace operators working in metallurgical production.
To qualify for an old-age pension under List No. 1, certain conditions must generally be met:
- the person must reach the age of 50;
- men generally need at least 25 years of total insurance record, including at least 10 years of qualifying employment, while women generally need at least 20 years of total insurance record, including at least 7 years and 6 months of qualifying employment.
However, despite these statutory guarantees, applicants may face difficulties when applying for a preferential pension. In some cases, the Pension Fund of Ukraine refuses to recognise periods of employment as preferential service, forcing the applicant to challenge the refusal in court.
One of the most common problems is the absence of proper workplace certification. The Pension Fund may argue that without such certification the harmful or particularly difficult nature of the working conditions has not been properly confirmed and, therefore, the relevant period cannot be counted as preferential service.
Ukrainian courts have developed important case law protecting employees in such situations. In particular, in its decision of 19 February 2020 in case No. 520/15025/16-a, the Supreme Court concluded that responsibility for failing to conduct workplace certification, or for conducting it late, rests with the employer rather than the employee. Therefore, the employer’s failure to properly conduct workplace certification cannot, by itself, serve as a lawful basis for denying an employee an old-age pension on preferential terms.
