The German and Ukrainian business community is concerned by reports regarding possible changes to the current procedure for reserving employees subject to military service at critically important enterprises. We consider it unacceptable to worsen conditions for businesses that have been subjected to severe attacks over the past six months.
Legitimate businesses will suffer the most. Such businesses already face a chaotic and unpredictable system for determining critical enterprise status and reserving employees from mobilisation. The rules change every three months rather than remaining stable for at least the 12-month period for which critical enterprise status is granted.
Our concerns relate to:
- A potential reduction in reservation limits for certain categories of critical enterprises.
- A review of the approaches to determining the number of employees who may be reserved.
- Possible changes to the procedure for confirming the status of critical enterprises.
Specifically, reducing the employee base used to calculate the number of employees who can be reserved would have serious consequences and prevent most companies from functioning properly.
Establishing a Coordination Centre without transparent rules governing its procedures creates corruption risks. The absence of detailed criteria and timeframes for the Centre’s decision-making gives it excessively broad discretion and limits scrutiny of the grounds for its decisions.
Instead of increasing pressure, we call on the Government to consider all possible alternatives to improve the efficiency of the mobilisation system.
Furthermore, the Chamber’s member companies see a need to increase reservation limits for logistics personnel, whose shortage is currently felt most acutely, and consider any reduction in reservation quotas for defence companies unacceptable.
Moreover, we are concerned by the lack of transparency in decisions that are vital to businesses. We call on the Government to engage in open and timely dialogue with the business community.
