Preferential Pension for Charging Machine Operators under List No. 1
STEEL AND FERROALLOY PRODUCTION. MIXTURE PREPARATION AND REPAIR OF METALLURGICAL FURNACES. CHARGING MACHINE OPERATORS
During their working life, employees not only gain professional experience and earn an income but also expend their physical strength and, in certain occupations, put their health at risk. Obviously, some professions have a significantly greater impact on a person’s health and well-being than others. For example, an accountant or a shoe salesperson is generally not exposed to the same occupational hazards as a diver or a miner.
Ukrainian legislation seeks to provide additional social protection for employees working under particularly difficult or hazardous conditions, including through preferential pension benefits. For this purpose, certain occupations are included in special lists that may entitle employees to an old-age pension on preferential terms and allow them to retire at an earlier age.
Ukrainian pension legislation provides for List No. 1 and List No. 2.
List No. 1 includes occupations, positions and types of work involving underground work and particularly harmful and particularly difficult working conditions, where full-time employment may entitle an employee to an old-age pension on preferential terms.
List No. 2 includes occupations, positions and types of work involving harmful and difficult working conditions, where full-time employment may also provide the right to an old-age pension on preferential terms.
Among the occupations included in List No. 1 are charging machine operators employed in steel and ferroalloy production.
Employees in this occupation may qualify for a reduced retirement age of 50. However, early retirement is subject to the required insurance and preferential service record. Men generally need at least 25 years of insurance record, including at least 10 years in the qualifying occupation. Women generally need at least 20 years of insurance record, including at least 7 years and 6 months in the qualifying occupation.
However, after years of difficult and hazardous work, an employee may face another challenge – proving their preferential service record. One of the most common problems when applying for a preferential pension concerns workplace certification. The Pension Fund of Ukraine may refuse to grant a preferential pension where the employer failed to conduct workplace certification, arguing that the harmful or particularly difficult working conditions have not been properly confirmed.
Court practice demonstrates that disputes concerning the recognition of such periods as preferential service may require judicial proceedings.
An important decision in this category of cases is the judgment of the Supreme Court of 19 February 2020 in case No. 520/15025/16-а.
The dispute concerned a refusal to grant a pension under List No. 1 because the enterprise where the applicant had worked had not conducted workplace certification. The Pension Fund of Ukraine therefore argued that the harmful working conditions had not been properly confirmed.
In this case, the Supreme Court departed from the approach previously expressed by the Supreme Court of Ukraine in its decision of 10 September 2013 in case No. 21-183а13. The Court concluded that responsibility for failing to conduct workplace certification, or for conducting it late, rests with the owner of the enterprise rather than the employee. The state, through the competent supervisory authorities, is responsible for monitoring compliance with workplace certification requirements; this responsibility cannot be transferred to the employee.
Accordingly, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court concluded that an employer’s failure to conduct workplace certification, or its failure to conduct such certification within the required time limits, cannot in itself constitute grounds for refusing an employee an old-age pension on preferential terms.
