12/06/2012 12 June 2012 International Labor Organization. Federation of Employers of Ukraine
Ukraine and International Labor Organization Approve National Decent Work Program for 2012 – 2015
Ukraine and the International Labor Organization have approved the National Decent Work Program for 2012 – 2015. The respective program approval memorandum was signed by Mme. Suzanna Hoffman, ILO’s Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia on behalf of the International Labor Organization, while from the Ukrainian side the signatures were affixed by Mr. Dmitry Firtash, Chairman of the National Tripartite Social-Economic Council (NTSEC) and President of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, and NTSEC Vice-Chairs: Sergey Tigipko, Ukraine’s Vice-Prime-Minister and Social Policy Minister; and Yuriy Kulyk, President of the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine. The signing ceremony took place in the Palais de Nations as part of the agenda of the ILO’s 101st conference.The third Decent Work Program envisages that the ILO will continue its technical assistance to Ukraine to attain the complete employments of its citizens through promoting small and medium enterprise and rise in employees’ qualification level. The document stresses that that the attainment of complete employment is one of indispensible prerequisites of Ukraine’s industrial and economic development. Professional qualification upgrade will also enable significant improvement of labor productivity in the real economy sectors.
“Achieving the goals outlined in the Program will address two interconnected priorities: rising the employment rate and securing the national economy advancement in Ukraine. These tasks fulfillment is a key to stability in the public and to the national welfare improvement,” said Mr. Firtash.
Mme. Hoffman remarked that the Memorandum signature is a testimony of Ukraine’s commitment and witnesses the country’s willingness to enforce the international provisions regulating labor markets. “These days we are marking the 17th anniversary since the inception of ILO-Ukraine cooperation. The signed Memorandum is a proof of Ukraine’s preparedness to challenges and commitment to raising the employment rate and quality of professional training,” stressed Mme. Hoffman.
Vice-Prime-Minister Sergey Tigipko indicated that the Decent Work Program approval signifies a major step forward towards the improvement of employment situation in Ukrainian.
According to the ILO’s statistics, the youth unemployment is quite a painful problem for Ukraine: up to 20 percent of young specialists aged between 15 and 24 remain jobless. This index exceeds the global average: the ILO estimates that internationally, 13 percent of young citizens (i.e. about 75 million people) do not have employment and are unlikely to find it in the next four years.
Employees’ professional upgrade powers the labor productivity increase. According to some research, professional upgrade in Ukraine is about once in eleven years whereas the European practice requires such upgrades with the regularity of three to four years.
