photo: Gitanas Nauseda’s Twitter
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The Ukrainian government has developed a mechanism to involve the temporarily unemployed citizens in socially useful work in the affected regions. The Minister of Economy, Yulia Svyrydenko, reported this at the meeting with the heads of the regional and Kyiv city military administrations.
Due to the ongoing war, the government of Ukraine expects a high level of unemployment, reaching about 30% at the end of the year. Thus, the country is seeking ways to mitigate it giving opportunities to the potential workforce.
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«We have two armies today: the first one is defending the country at the front, while the other one is working. People who lost their jobs for various reasons will be able to join the country’s «Army of Reconstruction», and the state will pay for their work at the minimum wage level, which will be UAH 6,700 as of October,» – she says.
The unemployed will be able to perform works of a defensive nature, eliminate the consequences of emergency situations of man-made, natural and military nature. These can be works aimed at meeting the needs of the Armed Forces, other military formations, and civil defense forces, as well as at ensuring the general needs of the functioning of the economy and the population’s life. In particular, it can include:
- setting up and strengthening block posts, felling trees to form trenches;
- harvesting firewood for the military and the population;
- demolition of rubble, restoration of residential buildings and other premises damaged as a result of hostilities;
- strengthening of dams;
- clearing highways from debris;
- unloading of humanitarian aid;
- arrangement of basements in high-rise buildings, schools for shelter;
- repair and restoration works in premises of the social sphere;
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providing assistance to internally displaced persons, people with disabilities, and the elderly.
The works should be organised by the military command together with the regional military administrations, with the involvement of executive authorities or independently from them. All able-bodied persons, in particular, those registered unemployed and refugees without health restrictions, will be involved in the work. At the same time, the unemployed will receive payment for work in the amount not lower than the minimum wage (6,700 UAH). Fixed-term labor contracts will be concluded with the participants of such works in accordance with the Labor Code.
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Let us add that as of now, socially useful works have already been implemented in the Sumy and Chernihiv regions in the Ukraine’s North. Thus, in the Sumy region, such works have started in 18 territorial communities out of 26, where no active hostilities are taking place, and almost 400 unemployed people have been employed there. In the Chernihiv region, 78 unemployed people were involved in such work.
We will also remind you that Ukraine presented a reconstruction plan worth 750 billion dollars.
Olha Koval
Translated by Vitalii Holich
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