New Sectoral Agreement signed between Trade Union of Education and Science Workers and Ministry of Education and Science

At the end of November 2016, at the Kiev Plenary Session of Trade Union of Education and Science Workers of Ukraine (TUESWU), a new Sectoral Agreement with Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine was signed for 2016-2020. The document was signed by Georgiy Trukhanov, President of TUESWU, and Lilia Grinevich, Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, during a grand ceremony.

Georgiy Trukhanov noted that today, TUESWU is the only professional union of teachers which proved its representativeness. He added that by signing such an important document, TUESWU and sectoral Ministry are showing their commitment to work together to improve the image of the teaching profession and to protect the rights and interests of employees in the education sector.

In general, the new Agreement is based on the main provisions of the previous Agreement, such as mutual obligations with respect to recruitment, improvement of the work and pay conditions and incentives, with a special emphasis on providing additional leave and remuneration for the enforced leave (in cases of natural disaster, quarantine, and other).

The provisions of the new Sectoral Agreement will lay the basis for regional sectoral agreements and collective agreements in schools and educational institutions. According to the 2015 data, 1,18 million (or 99,7%) of employees of the Ukrainian educational institutions with the primary trade union organisations are covered by collective agreements.

During the meeting, representatives of the trade union and Ministry also discussed the implementation of the Sectoral Agreement between TUESWU and Ministry for 2011-2015, which was extended to 2016. To fulfil its obligations under the Sectoral Agreement, TUESWU actively participated in the review and reconciliation of normative legal acts regarding rights and interests of teachers and students. During 2011-2015, it reviewed and made proposals on 556 draft laws, 474 draft regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, 367 draft decrees and on 363 other legal documents of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. The majority of TUESWU’s proposals were taken into account during the approval and adoption of these laws.

One of the achievements of cooperation between TUESWU and Ministry was an improvement of the situation with delays in paying teachers’ salaries in 2012-2015. The Ukrainian government found necessary resources to ensure the timely payments. Moreover, TUESWU succeeded in making government to raise teachers’ salaries and students’ scholarships. The trade union also challenged some of the “shock therapy” measures proposed by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

However, during the meeting parties also discussed some problematic issues which were not solved due to the lack of sufficient funding. They include, in particular, government’s failure to comply with the law On Education regarding the amount of the official salaries for teachers, academics and specialists in education. The norms of the legislation on the salaries of the I category employees were not respected. The housing guarantees to teachers in rural areas were violated.

Summarising the joint work of TUESWU and Ministry on implementing Sectoral Agreement for 2011-2015, Georgiy Trukhanov pointed out that negotiations are the most promising and constructive way of social dialogue.