The Trade Union of Railway Workers and Transport Builders of Ukraine warns of alarming trends being pursued by the management of one of the branches of Ukrzaliznytsia and demands that they stop unlawful actions and administrative pressure on employees. This is stated in an open letter to the Chairman of the Board Yevhen Lyashchenko.

The problem. In connection with the implementation of the process of centralising the accounting databases of the Passenger Company branch of Ukrzaliznytsia, based on the decision of the Board of Ukrzaliznytsia to reorganise the passenger transportation business, employees are offered to be transferred from the branch’s production units to work under a fixed-term employment contract in the branch’s management.

Violations. This is contrary to the requirements of clause 6 of Article 36 of the Labour Code, which provides that in the event of a change of ownership of an enterprise, institution or organisation, as well as in the event of their reorganisation (merger, accession, division, spin-off, transformation), the employee’s employment contract shall continue. After all, employees will continue to work in the same speciality, qualification and position, at the same workplace, perform the same job function, and only the name of the employer will change.

Explanation. Legislative acts do not provide for the conclusion of fixed-term employment contracts for accountants, only in certain cases and with an individual employee, when the employee personally requests to conclude an employment contract for a specified period, based on personal interests, and not on the instructions of the branch management and in a deliberately established form, and for a large number of employees

Direct restriction of employees’ rights. The list of documents to be submitted for the employment of employees includes completed BLANKS and FORMS with fixed dates of admission (Application for Employee Admission to the Branch Office). The form and the form of this application oblige the employee to ‘request’ to be hired for a vacant position on the terms of a FIXED-TERM employment contract, allegedly due to personal circumstances.

We emphasise. This constitutes direct administrative coercion and discrimination in the field of labour, in particular, a violation of the principle of equality of rights and opportunities (Article 2-1 of the Labour Code). We note that the vast majority of employees of ‘Ukrzaliznytsia’ work under indefinite employment contracts.

A word of warning. Employees entering into fixed-term contracts is, in effect, an application for resignation with a deferred term.

We demand. Immediately stop the unlawful actions of the management of the Passenger Company branch and restore the violated rights of employees to conclude indefinite employment contracts.