Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1995, published 83rd ILC session (1996)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Ukraine (Ratification: 1968)

The Committee notes the Government's report, which covers a period ending September 1994 and provides, in reply to its previous request, information on trends in employment, underemployment and unemployment and on the labour market policy measures that have been implemented. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide further information in its next report in reply to the questions in the report form, taking into account the following remarks.

1. The Committee continues to experience serious difficulties in assessing the level and trends of employment, unemployment and underemployment in the country. The Government states that, although the registered unemployment rate at the end of the period was still lower than 0.4 per cent, an average of 18.9 per cent of employees were on unpaid leave, 4.4 per cent had been laid off temporarily over the past nine months, 5.7 per cent were working part time, and the hidden unemployment rate was estimated at 2.6 per cent of the active population. The Committee deduces that these various forms of involuntary unemployment and underemployment comprise nearly one in three active and employable persons. This does not appear to fulfil the objective of full, productive and freely chosen employment set out in the Convention and in the Act respecting the employment of the population of 1 March 1991.

2. In this context, the Committee notes that the statistical data supplied by the Government concerning the supply and demand for labour, placement and participation in training programmes only cover the unemployed who are registered with the employment services. Although appreciating the efforts made by the Government to improve the quality of the information provided, the Committee is bound to recall that an active employment policy in the sense of the Convention cannot be confined to such narrowly limited labour market measures. With reference in this respect to the analyses and recommendations contained in the ILO report submitted to the tripartite conference "Reforming labour and social policy in Ukraine" (Kiev, September 1994), the Committee requests the Government to provide information on the manner in which it envisages the structural reform of the whole of the labour market rendered necessary by the introduction of market economy mechanisms.

3. The Committee also recalls that under the terms of Article 2 of the Convention the measures to be adopted for attaining employment objectives shall be decided on and kept under review "within the framework of a coordinated economic and social policy". Noting that the reference period has been characterized by the intensified recession of economic activity and hyperinflation which was only significantly reduced as of May 1994, the Committee hopes to find information the Government's next report on the manner in which, in this particularly difficult situation, the measures taken in the various fields of general economic policy have contributed to maintaining the promotion of full, productive and freely chosen employment as "a major goal", in accordance with Article 1 of the Convention. Please describe the measures taken for this purpose in such fields as investment policy; budgetary, monetary and exchange rate policies; trade policy; and prices, incomes and wages policies.

4. In its previous request, the Committee noted that the Act respecting the employment of the population does not recognize the right of employers' organizations to participate in the formulation of employment policy and the relevant legislation, nor in regular consultations on employment problems, whereas the participation of trade unions is guaranteed. Noting the establishment of the National Council of the Social Partners, the Committee trusts that the necessary measures will be taken to ensure that employers' organizations are fully associated, on an equal footing with trade unions, in all consultations relating to employment policies, in accordance with Article 3 of the Convention. It once again requests the Government to describe the practical procedures for the consultation of the representatives of the persons affected, in the sense of this fundamental provision of the Convention.

5. Finally, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply information on the effect given, or that it plans to give, to the conclusions emanating from the tripartite conference held in Kiev on the discussion of the report prepared by the ILO team for Central and Eastern Europe. Please indicate in particular, at the appropriate time, the action taken as a result of the technical cooperation projects that are formulated to give effect to the recommendations contained in the above report (point V of the report form).