Port Will Not Operate Without People!

Disagreeing with the employer's arbitrariness and impudence, people are applying for reinstatement of employment in court. And the MTWTU, for its part, is ready to support the position of its members.

It is worth noting that the situation in Kherson has been extremely difficult since the beginning of the full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. The city was under occupation. However, Kherson residents became the heroes showing their resistance to the invaders and a symbol of the indomitable spirit.

Kherson residents stood up for our country! In return, the state-owned enterprise (where people were holding their working positions), after the de-occupation of the city, dismissed all its employees in Kherson with numerous violations of the law.

Back in March 2022, the MTWTU sent a call to employers of maritime transport enterprises (including USPA and its branches, the Ministry of Infrastructure) calling for preserving labor potential, supporting labor collectives, not abusing wartime labor legislation, and especially not violating it (the text can be found on the "Seafarer" Newspaper, issue No. 2-4, 2022).

With martial law, the USPA Kherson branch, like most enterprises in the war zone, imposed a downtime during which employees retained their legally guaranteed payments.

At the end of April 2022, the Ministry of Infrastructure ordered the closure of seaports in the temporarily occupied territories (including the port of Kherson) until regaining control over them. It allowed the Kherson seaport administration to initiate the cancellation of the downtime (instead, to suspend employment contracts), which left people without livelihoods.

The MTWTU sent a letter to the Ministry of Infrastructure (to which the USPA is subject) emphasizing the need to maintain labor relations with employees and provide at least minimum payments to them. At the same time, a corresponding letter was sent to the then-acting head of USPA.

Having received no response, in early July, the Trade Union sent a second letter to the same addressees. The document proposed specific actions of the employer, which are successfully taken by other state-owned enterprises (including those under occupation) to provide the necessary support to their employees. We received a "reply". The employer demonstrated a complete unwillingness to support its workers together with Trade Union and indifference to people's lives. Many of those people have devoted significant parts of their lives to working at the port, and they are concerned about the future of the port, its administration, the city of Kherson, and Ukraine.

In May 2022, to emphasize the importance of the issue, more than 150 employees signed a collective application, which was sent to the President of Ukraine, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine. People expressed their resilience and resistance to the occupiers. They reported a lack of funds to buy food, medicine, and basic necessities. People drew attention to the fact that SE "USPA" is a single unitary enterprise, and that all its employees (including those under occupation) should be subject to the same support measures. People called not to leave them without means for livelihood one-to-one with the occupiers. They asked to find ways to support them.

However, since May 2022, the employer has stopped any payments to its employees in Kherson. But, as further events have shown, it did not break our people. They survived the horrors of the occupation in poverty. And today, they suffer not only from enemy shelling but also from having lost their jobs at the state enterprise.

We would like to remind you that the MTWTU and the Welfare Fund "Mortrans" established by Trade Union have been providing support to our Union members and their families, including the employees of SE "USPA", both financially and with basic needs. Thanks to the international recognition and support of the MTWTU, our people receive assistance from fraternal unions and funds from around the world.

At the end of June, a new acting Head was appointed at USPA. With the hope of changing the management's position to employees from the temporarily occupied territories, the MTWTU sent a letter to the new USPA Head describing the situation and attaching the correspondence with his predecessor. In response, we received a reply that suspending the employment contracts was the only option.

In such circumstances, employees retain only their jobs, and no payments from the employer are provided. At the same time, after Ukraine's victory, employees will be able to receive compensation for their lost earnings within reparations from the aggressor country.

However, from the end of December 2022, people lost their jobs and, as a result, the right to further reparations payments. The employer decided to dismiss all workers of the USPA Kherson branch. The grounds specified in the dismissal documents were the newly adopted provision of the Labor Code of Ukraine - clause 6, part 1, Article 41 "impossibility to provide the employee with the work specified in the employment agreement due to the destruction (absence) of production, organizational and technical conditions, production means or property of the employer as a result of hostilities".

At the same time, the employees were verbally assured that as soon as the shelling of the city ended and the port resumed its operation (which no one doubts), they would be rehired. So why was it necessary to fire all the people?

The issue of mass employee dismissal of the USPA Kherson branch was the subject of an expanded meeting of the MTWTU Central Council Presidium.

The MTWTU demanded that the employer cease and cancel all unlawful actions to dismiss employees. Otherwise, we will take measures to restore the violated rights of our Union members. It is what is currently happening.

The MTWTU has already filed a complaint against the actions of the SE "USPA" management to the Head of the State Labor Service of Ukraine and heads of the Central and Southern Interregional Departments of the State Labor Service. Additionally, the problem of violation of labor legislation by SE "USPA" was raised by our Union at a joint meeting of the leadership of the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine and the State Labor Service at the end of January this year.

We are grateful to the Head of the State Labor Service, Mr. Igor Degnera, for his prompt feedback and instructions to the subordinate departments. We believe that by working together, we will stop and prevent violations of labor laws. For its part, the MTWTU is always ready to provide all possible assistance in this regard.

It is also good to note the position of our illegally dismissed Union members, who manifested their readiness to fight for their labor rights.

Oleksandr Bezrodnyi, a member of the MTWTU local trade union organization committee at the Kherson port (who also filed a lawsuit to cancel the illegal dismissal), notes: "We are not fighting for ourselves. We are for the Union to save our team and to fully restore the operation of the Kherson port and USPA!"

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