The government is considering revoking permission for companies to exempt 100% of their employees from mobilisation due to a large number of abuses. Companies entitled to exempt staff can “inflate their workforce indefinitely,” Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said during the government question time session.
At the same time, they can exempt everyone regardless of whether an employee’s role is critically important. The abuses have become widespread.
“This is the only reason we are looking at the 100% threshold — whether to modify it or still leave it as it is. Because, unfortunately, there are many abuses. And additional exemptions continue every month,” Koretskyi said.
He argued for separating the criticality criteria from the economic block. The criterion of a sufficiently high salary and the absence of arrears does not always mean that a company is critical.
“Critical means the country’s defence capability and the maintenance of essential services. I can give just one example: there is a contractor that is currently exempted at 100% because it carries out work, for instance, for Ukrenergo. Only when we looked into it in detail did we find that 20 out of 100 people actually work for Ukrenergo. Yet all 100 are exempted,” the prime minister said.
He stressed that work is continuing on a resolution to revise the exemption rules.
Context
The Cabinet is considering setting a cap of 85% instead of 100% for companies entitled to exempt employees. The changes could affect more than 900 companies in the defence-industrial complex.
Currently, to exempt employees, a company must meet certain criteria. An employee’s salary must be at least three minimum wages — UAH 25,941. The criticality criteria are determined by ministries and local authorities.