As to delays of pay, not only by individuals but also by representatives of enterprise workers, particularly by the physicians of the Koropsk Central Hospital, Chernihiv oblast, medical workers of the city of Brianka, Luhansk oblast, and others approached the Commissioner during the inspections. The Commissioner immediately initiated on-site inquiries into these infringements and sent the respective findings to the state administrations of these oblasts.

More grounds for the conclusion that the right to payment for work was violated on a mass scale was provided by numerous petitions presented to the Commissioner during meetings with workers and employees. Thus, the Commissioner personally met with the miners and management of the most problematical coal mines of Luhansk oblast, including Illych mine in Stakhanov (under closure that time) and also the mines that were still producing coal, such as Zolote Mine of the Pervomaiskvuhillia State Holding Company, the Barakov Mine and Sukhodolsk Eastern Mine of the Krasnodonvullia State Holding Company, and the Pobeda Luhanskbudrestrukturizatisia State Enterprise in the township of Belenke. In all, 1,427 persons addressed the Commissioner concerning wage arrears.

The investigations of law-enforcement bodies also testify to infringements of the rights to work. For example, the prosecutor’s office of Luhansk oblast established that by the beginning of 1999 wage arrears at the Barakov Mine amounted to UAH 10.4 million. And an additional UAH 2,355,900 was damages to be paid for disability. As the consequence, violations of labor discipline, strikes and other acts of protest grew in number. Between January 30 and February 19 1999, there was a labor dispute at the Barakov Mine when the miners demanded their back pay. Only when all the UAH 116,000 were paid off was the protest suspended. But some miners continued to strike. At the same time, there were numerous cases of misappropriation of short-term loans, which the mine had received to pay off the debts. Thus, UAH 13,2 00 out of UAH 104,600 allocated from the state reserve in May 1998 to pay off the wages were used for other purposes (repair of a recreation camp, tax payment etc.).

On the basis of these findings the Commissioner appealed to the Prime Minister on June 25 1999, drawing his attention to the fact that defaults of wage disbursement, recourse payments, and one-time payments for injuries and occupational diseases became chronic in the coal sector. The debts in different kinds of payments are settled, as a rule, between one to two years. All this testifies to a rather difficult situation as to the observance of human rights and freedoms in Luhansk oblast, making people resort more often to strikes, hunger strikes, and even suicides. Therefore, the Commissioner recommended that the Cabinet of Ministers in compliance with Article 116 of the Ukrainian Constitution, take effective measures to improve the situation,

The issue of the human rights observance, and first of all of the right to work, was discussed at a meeting with the head of the Luhansk oblast state administration, O.Yefremov. The Commissioner presented her suggestions as to the improvement of the socioeconomic rights’ observance at the on-site session of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which was held in Luhansk oblast with participation of the President of Ukraine June 2, 1999.

The Commissioner considers that extensive and ongoing infringements of the miners’ rights were directly connected with the factors that result in the bankruptcy of the coalmines.

However, the measures that have been taken by the Luhansk oblast state administration in response to the Commissioner’s intervention were not satisfactory. The First Deputy Minister of the Coal Industry V.Novikov informed the Commissioner that only a part of the back wages (UAH 92,000 for 1997-1998) were paid in June 1999 to the 98 workers of the Zolote Mine, who stayed underground in protest against the delay of pay.

October 1999 the Commissioner again received a telegram from the Barakov Mine about the failure to pay back wages to the workers V.Tytiuchenko, O.Paramonov, M.Popov, and O.Tarakanov, who refused to leave the coalface. The prosecutor’s office of Luhansk oblast informed the Commissioner about the measures that were taken: the prosecutor issued prescription for the Barakov Mine, after which all the wages were paid to these miners.

Mrs. O.Lahutina of Antratsyt, Luhansk oblast repeatedly addressed the authorities to have the rights of her family protected. Her husband, a worker or the Partizan Mine, did not receive UAH 3,557 in wages for 1997 and 1998. However, the responses she received, in particular from the Ministry of the Coal Industry, stated that the Partizan Mine was in difficult straits and wages were paid only for the current month. Following the Commissioner’s inquiry into the this case of violation of human rights and freedoms, a special letter was sent to the local prosecutor’s office with the request to take appropriate measures. However, the issue was solved in 1999.

The above-mentioned facts give seasons for the Commissioner to conclude that in Luhansk oblast that gross infringements of the human rights to work and to receive pay on time still continue to occur.

At a time when a half of population’s incomes are less than the officially established subsistence level, the citizens are compelled to agree to payment of debts in-kind with food, cattle, and various services. Thus, the deputy head of the Sumy oblast state administration informed the Commissioner about the petition under his consideration sent by veterinary hospital workers M.Didenko and P. Hrebinnyk from the village of Velyky Vystorop, Lebedyn raion. During 1999, they received UAH 967.43 worth of food products and UAH 1,126.79 worth of services instead of their wages, and only UAH 70 in cash. However, even these in-kind compensations covered only one-third of the V.Vystorop Ltd. debts to these citizens as of January 1, 2000.

During one year V. Smirnov, a former worker of the Krasnodonvuhlebud coalmine construction company, did not receive his pay. He filed an appeal with the Commissioner’s office requesting protection of his rights. Ultimately, after measures were taken, his wife agreed to take UAH 2,200 worth of consumer goods to cover the outstanding debt.

The citizens are compelled to seek protection of their rights with various government agencies. In 1998 the State Labor Inspectorate alone received 39,500 petitions. It checked 15, 000 enterprises/debtors and made them pay off more than UAH 300 million in wage arrears. Besides, trade-union organizations together with the State Labor Inspectorate revealed 105,471 infringements concerning payment of wages.

Court claims for compensation of earned wages are growing in number. Of the total number of cases on labor relations such claims account for 92.7 %. In 1998 courts considered 224,306 cases on payment of wages, and the claimants were awarded UAH 413.8 million in back pay. In 1999, 244,418 such cases were considered and the amount awarded made up UAH 311.9 million, or 83.6 % of the total claims (25 % less than the year before). In particular, courts in Luhansk oblast allowed 10,171 claims for back pay (UAH 13.07 million) in 1998. A similar situation developed in Chernihiv oblast, where courts allowed such 11,930 (UAH 10.94 million in claims) in 1998.

A number of examples of the Commissioner’s inquiries into cases of default of judicial decisions on non-payment of wages have been commented on in chapters III and IV. The list can be continued. Thus, only after the Commissioner addressed the prosecutor’s office in Sumy concerning default of the decision of May 12 the Sumy Oblast Court in favor of Mr.I.Hrachenko, UAH 2,894 in wage arrears were exacted from the Sumy Oblast Vocational Training Courses.

A similar complaint was received from Naumenko from Dnipropetrovsk oblast. The Ordzhonikidze Mechanical Repairs Plant failed to pay him wages from May 15 to December 4, 1998, although it was bound to do so by a special court decision. The Commissioner forwarded an appeal to the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Directorate for Justice and the applicant’s rights were restored. The Commissioner’s intervention was also instrumental when wage arrears were awarded to Mrs.Y.Pavlova of Donetsk and to many other appellants.

The right to strike. Delays in paying wages and other unsettled issues make workers resort to extraordinary measures to protect their economic and social rights and interests that are violated both by employers and the state. One of the ways to protect their rights is to go on strike, the right to which is stipulated in Article 44 of the Ukrainian Constitution and specified in the Law On the Procedure for Settling Collective Labor Disputes (Conflicts).

In 1998, the workforce of 687 companies decided to go on strikes involving 98,700 participants. In 1999, the number of labor conflicts was diminishing. At the 212 companies and organizations where strikes occurred 42,000 workers were involved, including 26,3 00 in the industries and 12,600 in education.

The most frequent collective labor disputes occurred more often in mechanical engineering building and the defense complex, coal mining, oil and gas production, nuclear power generation, education, and health care. June 1998 the Federation of Trade Unions got involved in the labor dispute with the Cabinet of Ministers, because the government failed to meet the demands that were agreed upon with the trade unions.

The strikes in the coalmining sector throughout 1998 and 1999 gained an extensive nature. When visiting the mines, the Commissioner personally met the striking miners. In Luhansk oblast the Commissioner met with 123 miners of the Suhodolsk-Eastern Mine, who were on a hunger strike (they were not paid wages for 20 months since 1997), 14 miners at the Zolote Mine, who stayed underground for weeks, struggling for their right to be paid wages, and the 15 miners of the Pobeda Mine, who were also on strike down in the mine, and with another 24 strikers at the Barakov Mine. The reason they strike was the same for all of them – wage arrears.

The management of those mines was deliberately creating intolerable conditions for the strikers, although the latter were already in an extreme condition. The strikers down in the mine used electricity only for 10 hours a day, staying in complete darkness and being attacked by rats for the rest of the time. The strikers’ wives complained to the Commissioner that the management did not permit their men to come up for a shower and even threatened to switch off the ventilation. Following these meetings the Commissioner initiated inquiries and addressed the national leaders to settle the miners’ painful problems.

It goes without saying that in order to deal with the original cause of the labor conflicts – the socioeconomic crisis – decisions should be adopted at the national level in cooperation with all the structures of authority concerned. The Commissioner will continue supporting the striking miners in the pursuit of their legitimate rights.

Labor protection. Every worker or employee is entitled to such labor conditions that meet safety and hygiene requirements and are not detrimental to human health. Appropriate conditions for labor should be supported by a system of legal, socioeconomic, organizational, technical, medical and sanitary, and preventive measures of labor protection.

The right to labor protection and health care includes the right to reliable information on dangerous factors of production, protection against occupational diseases and injuries, the right to refuse to work in case one’s life and health are threatened, and the right to independent examination and control over the observance of labor legislation.

According to international experts, Ukraine is a leading country among the former Soviet republic and second after Moldova to have its own legislation on labor protection. For the first time in the history of this country workers have been granted the right to refuse to work if their health or lives are threatened. The legislation clearly regulates compensation of damage to health and introduces economic methods of labor protection management, which is the responsibility of the state and not of public organizations as it was previously practiced.

Preventive measures to improve labor conditions are carried out at the expense of capital investments and operating costs. Besides, 73% of the expenses are financed out of decentralized funds (predominantly for account of the products’ cost). Therefore economic entities are not interested in ensuring safety requirements. The existing system is oriented only to receiving wages by the results of an enterprise’s work and higher labor productivity by saving time mainly on measures of protection of labor. And as a consequence, 12% of total expenses for labor protection account for losses from injuries and occupational diseases. Relying on the analysis of the sectors’ accounting and reporting, the studies by the Institute of Industrial Economy under the Academy of Sciences showed that the relations in labor protection between enterprises and other subjects are far from perfect.

Over 3.3 million people work in conditions that clash with sanitary-hygienic requirements, including almost one million women. The availability of individual protection devices does not exceed 40-50 %. Annually UAH 40 million in claims have to be paid for damage to life and health of workers.

The Commissioner draws attention to the fact that most enterprise managers ignore their duties in creating healthy and safe labor conditions and quite often consider these issues as secondary. Regrettably, injuries and deaths in the economy tend to remain high. Preservation of the workers’ of health and life is still an extremely painful problem. In 1998, 50,800 persons were injured in on their jobs, including 1,551 fatalities, and in 1999 the respective figures were 39,800 and 1,388 (Table 6.4). According to the conclusion of the Commissioner, the significant reduction in fatalities and injuries in production in 1999 as compared with 1998 is explained first of all not so much by improved labor conditions and safety precautions as by a drop in the industrial workforce.

Most accidents occur in agriculture and its related sectors. In 1999, there were 461 fatalities (in 1998 - 500 persons). In transportation 104 persons were killed in 1999 (in 1998 - 115). High injuries have been registered in Donetsk oblast - 312 cases, Dnipropetrovsk oblast - 112, Luhansk oblast - 101, Odessa and Kharkiv oblasts - 67 persons each. Compared with 1998, there was a much larger growth of fatalities in Chernihiv, Ternopil, Rivne, Lviv, and Transcarpathia oblasts.

Fatality remains high in the coal mining industry. In the last ten years, the number of fatalities per one million tons of extracted coal doubled and accounts for almost four cases (Fig. 6.3). In 1998, 360 miners were killed, in 1999 - 295. One of the causes of the deaths is the failure to abide by requirements of the safety precautions directly at the mines.

The provisions of Article 43 of the Ukrainian Constitution are also violated. According to this article, everyone has the right to proper, safe and healthy work conditions. During an inspection conducted by the prosecutor’s office of Luhansk oblast in 1998, it was established that the management of the Luhanskvuhilla State Holding Company and management of its subordinated enterprises did not ensure that the proper execution of requirements of Article 17 of the Law On Labor Protection. Neither were the requirements of Article 153 of the Code of Law on Labor complied with as regards the healthy and safe conditions of work of miners. Not a single mine of this company has a complete set of fire prevention and protection devices (fire hoses, fire extinguishers etc.). The Commissioner repeatedly raised the issue of working clothes for miners. They were not issued to miners throughout six-seven years, and the general availability of the clothes in the industry account for only a half of what is required.

Coal production (million tons)

Fatalities (persons)

Fatalities per 1 million tons of coal

In violation of Article 10 of the Law On Labor Protection and the Rules of Safety at Coal Mines means of individual protection are not provided to miners in the required amount. Thus, while the need for individual rescue equipment at the Bilorechenska Mine is 825 units, there were only 325 units available. In all, the holding company had to have 10,000 of the required units, but actually it had 7,100.

After having learned how the rights of miners are complied with, in particular, their right to proper, safe and healthy conditions of work, the Commissioner spoke at the out-of-town session of the Cabinet of Ministers held on June 2, 1999 in Luhansk, emphasizing that “as Article 27 of the Ukrainian Constitution stipulates, every person has the inalienable right to life, and it is the duty of the state to protect human rights and life. For the coal sector the protection of the life of workers is an extremely acute issue. This is confirmed by the recent events in Donetsk. It was already emphasized today that since the beginning of this year 151 miners have lost their lives. Isn’t that too dear a price for the bread of industry? So I think that the issue of safety engineering, and I support this element of the government’s work, should by all means be considered both at the session of the ministry’s board and, perhaps, as a separate agenda at the session of the Cabinet of Ministers. Visiting the mines, I saw how our miners, without so much as being provided with elementary individual protective means, go down the mines every day and put their lives at risk every day as well.”

However, many issues remained unresolved, including those the Commissioner drew attention to: namely, absence of necessary number of means of individual and collective protection, insufficient number of head-lanterns with individual methanol alarm-systems. Regrettably, subsequent developments confirmed that the Commissioner’s concerns were justified.

Extremely unsatisfactory is the status of labor protection at non-state enterprises, where obsolete equipment and technologies are used. According to official data, the number of fatal injuries at these enterprises is 2.7 times larger than at the state-owned enterprises!

The Law On Labor Protection secures basic economic methods of labor protection management, including insurance against accidents and diseases, labor protection funding, and economic incentives. However, contrary to the requirements of the legislation on labor protection, no targeted social insurance funds are yet in place to serve as a source for compensating loss of health.