On the website of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine the government published Resolution No. 1328, which changes the procedure for reserving employees liable for military service and raises the maximum level of reservation for workers in the fuel and energy complex (ПЕК) and the defence-industrial complex (ОПК) to 95%.
New reservation limits for ОПК and ПЕК
For critically important enterprises in ОПК and ПЕК a maximum reservation level of up to 95% of employees liable for military service has been established. Employees directly involved in production, fulfilment of defence orders, repair and emergency-recovery work must be fully reserved.
Within the established limit, enterprise managers will independently determine the list of employees to be reserved. Increasing the maximum share above 95% is possible by a separate decision of the Ministry of Defence or the Ministry of Energy, taking into account recommendations from the Coordination Centre.
Review of enterprise criticality criteria
Within 10 days after the resolution comes into force, central executive bodies and regional military administrations must review the sectoral and regional criteria by which enterprises are recognised as critically important. If a criterion on the basis of which an enterprise obtained that status is removed, the decision recognising it as critically important may be cancelled.
Enterprises that meet the criteria that remain in force will retain their status until the end of the established period. The resolution does not set out an exhaustive list of grounds for cancelling the status.
Coordination Centre, ТЦК and the procedure for issuing reservations
The Coordination Centre set up at the Cabinet will consider questions of determining enterprise criticality, possible cancellation of such status and increases of reservation limits above 50%. The Centre will provide recommendations, while final decisions will remain with the authorised state bodies.
The Centre includes representatives of 18 bodies and structures, among them the SBU, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Main Intelligence Directorate, the Office of the President, the National Police and the General Staff; there are no business representatives on its board. The Centre may refuse an increase in the quota if the head of an enterprise has been held liable twice within 12 months for violations of military registration rules.
After an increased limit is approved, enterprises will have 10 working days to record reservations for employees through the Diia portal («Дія»). If the reservation is not recorded within that period, the decision to raise the limit will lapse.
How the reservation rules were changed
According to Member of Parliament Yaroslav Zheleznyak, the first draft of changes published on 12 October envisaged lowering the reservation limit for ОПК and energy to 85% and setting other quotas for heat supply and water supply. On 16 October a motion to cancel the previous changes — Resolution No. 16160 — was registered in the Verkhovna Rada and signed by 63 MPs, and that same day the government removed the issue from the agenda.
On 23 October the government adopted the revised version of Resolution No. 1328. Zheleznyak also noted changes to the rules for accounting employees with deferrals and other adjustments, including a narrower list of sectors that may receive critically important status.
