Employees in harmful conditions will have their service record reduced: when unpaid leave is not counted.

Ukrainian labor legislation provides employees with the right to annual basic leave and, under certain conditions, additional unpaid leave. It is known how unpaid leave will affect the overall amount of insurance experience.

The relevant question is stipulated in Article 9 of Law No. 504/96-VR 'On Leave'.

Who among Ukrainians has the right to additional leave

According to the norms of the law, the right to have annual additional unpaid leave is granted to employees whose activities are related to harmful and difficult working conditions.

This is determined based on the List of industries, workshops, professions, and positions with harmful and difficult working conditions, approved by Government Resolution No. 1290.

The insurance experience of an employee, which grants the right to additional leave, includes:

• The period of work under harmful/difficult conditions, if engaged in the respective conditions for at least half of the duration of the working day established for workers in this industry/position;
• The time of annual basic/additional leave for work under harmful, difficult conditions;
• The period of labor for pregnant women, transferred based on doctors' conclusions to lighter work, where there is no impact of adverse factors.

According to paragraph 10 of the Procedure for Applying the List of Industries, Workshops, Professions with harmful/difficult working conditions, approved by the Order of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine No. 16, the days when employees were actually engaged in such work for at least half the duration of the working day for such workers are counted towards the time that guarantees employees additional leave.

Will the time of additional unpaid leave be counted in the service record

According to the Legal Aid Center of the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine, the aforementioned employees should remember that the period of additional unpaid leave is not counted towards the insurance experience of work under harmful and difficult working conditions.

It is explained there that since such employees were on leave without pay, they were not engaged in harmful and difficult working conditions, which will negatively affect their insurance experience.