Preferential Pension for Forging and Stamping Operators on Rotary Machines
Rolling, Wheel-Rolling, Tyre-Rolling, Fork-Rolling, Sheet-Rolling, Tinning, Galvanizing and Lead-Coating Production; Rail Fastener Production; Hot Metal Cutting and Cleaning; Heat Treatment; Calibrated Metal Production: Forging and Stamping Operators on Rotary Machines
In today's world, it is difficult to imagine life without mobile phones, cars and other achievements of scientific and technological progress. However, not everyone considers how much hard work is involved in obtaining the natural resources required for their production. Many complex jobs involving harmful and hazardous working conditions have not yet been fully automated and still require human labour.
This means that there are people who regularly risk their health and safety while performing socially important work. Perhaps in the future, hazardous and physically demanding jobs will be performed entirely by robots and machines, but today millions of people are still required to perform such work.
For this reason, Ukraine has undertaken to provide social protection to these categories of workers. One of the most important forms of such protection is the establishment of special retirement conditions. These conditions provide for a lower retirement age and special requirements concerning the insurance record necessary to qualify for a pension.
Ukrainian legislation provides for special lists containing occupations and positions that entitle employees to retire earlier than under the general pension rules.
Ukrainian pension legislation provides for List No. 1 and List No. 2. List No. 1 includes, among others, workers engaged in the production of rail fasteners, cutting and cleaning of hot metal, production of calibrated metal and forging and stamping operations on rotary machines.
To qualify for a preferential pension under List No. 1, certain requirements must be satisfied:
- the person must reach the age of 50;
- a man must have at least 25 years of insurance record, including at least 10 years of employment in the relevant hazardous occupation; a woman must have at least 20 years of insurance record, including at least 7 years and 6 months of employment in the relevant occupation.
An equally important issue is not only the existence of statutory social protection but also its practical implementation. In practice, after a person applies to the Pension Fund of Ukraine for a preferential pension, the Pension Fund may refuse to grant it on the grounds that the employee's workplace was not properly certified. In particular, such refusals may refer to paragraph 3.3 of the Procedure for Applying Lists No. 1 and No. 2 of Industries, Works, Professions, Positions and Indicators when Calculating Employment Periods Entitling a Person to a Preferential Old-Age Pension, approved by Order No. 383 of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of Ukraine dated 18 November 2005. According to this Procedure, the lists applicable during the relevant period of employment are used when determining entitlement to a preferential old-age pension. The entire period of employment in the relevant positions or professions may be included in the preferential service record, regardless of when they were added to the lists, provided that the relevant working conditions before 21 August 1992 are confirmed by documents and, for periods after 21 August 1992, by the results of workplace certification.
However, a refusal by the Pension Fund does not necessarily mean that a person has lost the right to a preferential pension. Such a right may be protected through court proceedings.
An important example of judicial practice in this category of cases is the judgment of the Supreme Court dated 19 February 2020 in case No. 520/15025/16-а. The case concerned a person who was refused a pension under List No. 1 because the employer had failed to conduct workplace certification. The Pension Fund therefore argued that the hazardous nature of the person's working conditions had not been properly confirmed.
In this case, the Supreme Court departed from the earlier conclusions of the Supreme Court of Ukraine expressed in its decision of 10 September 2013 in case No. 21-183а13. The Court held that responsibility for failure to conduct workplace certification, or for conducting it late, rests with the owner of the enterprise rather than the employee. The responsibility for supervising workplace certification is exercised by the state through the competent regulatory authorities and cannot be imposed on the employee.
Therefore, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court concluded that an employer's failure to conduct workplace certification, or its failure to conduct such certification in a timely manner, cannot constitute grounds for refusing an employee a preferential old-age pension.
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