Pension for Slingers in Hot Work Areas under List No. 1 in Ukraine
Pension matters are an important aspect of everyone's life. Everyone wants to know at what age they can retire, how many more years they need to work, what amount of pension they can expect to receive, and so on.
As a general rule, Ukrainian legislation establishes a retirement age of 60 and requires at least 28 years of insurance record (as of 2021) to qualify for an old-age pension. However, certain categories of people may retire earlier. This primarily depends on the type of work in which a person has been employed.
Ukrainian legislation establishes an exhaustive list of occupations and types of work that entitle employees to retire at a reduced retirement age. These types of work are specified in resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approving List No. 1 and List No. 2. List No. 1 covers occupations involving particularly difficult and hazardous working conditions and entitles eligible workers to retire at the age of 50. List No. 2 covers less hazardous types of work and generally provides the right to retire at the age of 55.
In this article, we will discuss pensions for slingers employed in hot work areas. This occupation is included in List No. 1 and therefore entitles eligible workers to an old-age pension on preferential terms.
The duties of a slinger employed in hot work areas include slinging and securing simple products and parts for lifting, moving and positioning them; slinging and securing loads of medium complexity, timber loads, products, parts and assemblies and positioning them on machines, platforms and other installation devices and mechanisms, as well as performing other related operations.
To qualify for an old-age pension on preferential terms, persons employed as slingers must reach the age of 50 and have at least 25 years of insurance record, including at least 10 years of employment as a slinger.
Employment as a slinger may be confirmed by an employment record book. However, the relevant employment entries must be properly completed. An example of an appropriate entry would be: “Employed full-time as a slinger engaged in hot work areas.”
In practice, there are situations where a person has either lost their employment record book or the entries in it are incorrect or contain amendments. In such cases, the relevant period of employment may be confirmed by a clarifying certificate obtained from the employer or an archival institution, or, in certain circumstances, by witness testimony under the procedure conducted by the Pension Fund of Ukraine. However, if the employment record book has been properly completed and contains all the necessary information, obtaining additional certificates or taking other steps is generally unnecessary.
Nevertheless, when pension documents are submitted, employees of the Pension Fund frequently require applicants to provide additional clarifying certificates confirming their preferential service record despite the existence of a properly completed employment record book. Such requirements may be unlawful.
Ukrainian courts have already developed case law concerning the necessity of providing clarifying certificates. The general approach is that where an employment record book contains entries from which the nature of the work performed and the relevant working conditions can be established, additional clarifying certificates are not required. Therefore, in such circumstances, requiring an applicant to provide an additional certificate is unlawful.
An example of relevant case law in which the court applied this approach is the judgment of the Supreme Court of April 27, 2020, in case No. 648/1613/17.
