The Cabinet of Ministers removed the resolution on the reservation of employees from the agenda and will hold consultations with businesses — Zheleznyak
Kyiv • UNN
The government removed from the meeting agenda the resolution on reducing the reservation quotas. The document is planned to be revised after consultations with businesses.
Following a barrage of criticism from representatives of strategic businesses, relevant associations, analysts, and lawmakers, the Cabinet of Ministers removed from its agenda consideration of a resolution limiting reservation quotas. The government plans to hold additional consultations with business representatives. MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak reported this, citing sources in the government, according to UNN.
"Two sources from the Government confirmed to me that, following the publicity surrounding the issue of the resolution on reservation, it was removed from today's Cabinet meeting. That is, for now, there will be no final approval today, and certainly not in the form that had been planned. Once again, this concerns today (as of this morning, the Government was still planning to submit it for approval at the 3:30 p.m. meeting)," the MP reported .
According to him, consultations and substantial revisions to the government initiative will be carried out, particularly regarding the risks identified by businesses.
Business representatives, MPs from the relevant committee, and industry associations stress that the Government prepared the changes without proper consultations or an assessment of the economic consequences, once again changing the rules for businesses operating under wartime conditions.
The greatest concern was caused by the Government's initiative to reduce reservation quotas. For example, quotas for defense-industrial and energy companies were planned to be reduced from 100% to 85%, and those for the utilities sector from 75% to 60%. Business representatives warn that such restrictions could lead to the loss of qualified personnel, especially highly specialized employees who are virtually impossible to replace quickly; shutdowns of production facilities; the disruption of defense contracts; interruptions in energy supplies and the provision of housing and communal services; and could also create threats to the state's food security. Ultimately, this would negatively affect the army's defense capabilities and the country's economy.
Businesses are also drawing particular attention to the fact that the potential mobilization effect of the proposed restrictions is disproportionate to the possible economic losses. Tens of thousands of employees could lose their "reservation," but this would not mean that these employees would necessarily join the military. At the same time, the outflow of qualified personnel threatens to reduce production, decrease tax revenues, result in lost investment, and lead to the relocation of Ukrainian enterprises abroad.
Representatives of the defense industry stress that the loss of even one highly specialized specialist could halt an entire production cycle, meaning that a 15% reduction in reservations could cause significantly greater losses to the state's defense capabilities.
The creation of a new Coordination Center, which, according to the Government's plan, would review the status of critically important enterprises, was also criticized. Businesses point to the lack of transparency in decision-making criteria, the absence of clear appeal procedures, and the risks of a subjective approach to determining reservation quotas. Additional concern was caused by corruption risks, which the NACP points out, related to the new body's broad discretionary powers.
Businesses demand that efforts to combat abuses in the reservation system not result in the weakening of the economy and the state's defense capabilities. Entrepreneurs and industry associations called on the Government to preserve the current reservation quotas and predictability of the rules, conduct full-fledged consultations, and take into account the specific features of critically important enterprises.
On October 16, 63 members of parliament registered draft resolution No. 16160 in the Verkhovna Rada, which provides for the annulment of the Cabinet's October 13 decision on reservation.