Ukraine’s government puts oligarchs ahead of people – Scoop.co.nz

Tuesday, 31 December 2019, 8:53 amPress Release: International Trade Union Confederation

On 27 December, the neo-liberal Cabinet of Ministers ofUkraine submitted to the Verkhovna Rada(UkrainianParliament) a new draft law on labour published earlier inthe month which will strip workers of legal protections, andunions of their ability to protect them. In doing so, theUkrainian government sided decisively with oligarchs andmultinational enterprises against its ownpeople.

Ukrainian trade unions believe the new draft lawwill result in:

1. easy dismissal of employees at anymoment, on employers whim;

2. short-term individuallabour contracts and zero hours contracts;

3. overtimebecoming the norm, paid at a fifth of current rates, withnormal working hours likely to exceed eight hours aday;

4. abolition of some social guarantees and reducedprotection for mothers with small children, making theirdismissal even easier;

5. the possibility to transfer anemployee to another workplace without their consent; and

6. no collective bargaining, excluding unions from theworkplace.

Further details can be found here: https://www.epsu.org/article/update-situation-ukraine

Thedraft law was introduced without consultation with tradeunions, and has been drafted to contain only 99 articles, sothat it receives only limited consideration in theParliament. The government has refused to seek theassistance of the International Labour Organisation, nodoubt because the draft law breaches several ILOconventions.

The Pan-European Regional Council of the ITUCadopted a resolution https://perc.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/statement_4th_perc_ga_on_ukraine_161219-2.pdfcondemning the proposals in mid-December, calling on thegovernment of Ukraine to withdraw the draft and seek ILOtechnical assistance. And just days later, the EuropeanTrade Union Confederation pledged https://www.etuc.org/en/node/18514 toraise the issue with the European Commission and Parliamenton the basis that the draft law contradicts the EU-UkraineAssociation Agreement.

ITUC General Secretary SharanBurrow said:

Ukraines government is siding witholigarchs and multinational corporates against workers, thepublic and unions. Global unions will stand shoulder toshoulder with our sisters and brothers in Ukraine. Theydeserve decent work, living wages and control over theirwork-life balance. We condemn the Ukrainian governmentsreckless breaches of its international obligations, whichrisk losing the country crucial support in Europe and theglobal community.

Read this article online

TheInternational Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) represents200 million members of 332 affiliates in 163 countries andterritories.

Follow us online, on Twitter and on Facebook

Scoop Media

Scoop Citizen Membership ScoopPro for Organisations

Go here to read the rest:

Ukraine's government puts oligarchs ahead of people - Scoop.co.nz