Overtime pay for Chernobyl survivors

Practical problems when recalculating pensions with additional payments

Despite direct legislative requirements, the Pension Fund of Ukraine bodies often do not recalculate pensions taking into account additional payments for overtime for Chernobyl survivors who retired before 2017. The most common reasons for refusals given by the PFU are:

• Lack of documents confirming the length of service in the exclusion zone, especially for the period 1986–1990. The PFU bodies require primary documents, which in practice are often absent in pension cases due to the passage of time, the destruction of archives or their location in temporarily occupied territories.
• The inability to verify the correctness of the calculation of wages for periods of work in the exclusion zone. The PFU limits recalculation to nominal approaches, while the law does not require additional verification for applying the additional payment if the length of service has already been confirmed.
• Limitation of the maximum pension amount, in which the supplement is not taken into account, since the PFU bodies refer to the decisions of the authorities on the maximum amounts. However, Law No. 796-XII and the relevant by-laws provide that the supplement should be accrued without limitation to the maximum amount, if this follows from the length of service and earnings.

Due to the above reasons, pensions that should have been recalculated taking into account the supplement for overtime work experience remain unchanged or even decrease compared to those that have already been assigned.

Case law on the supplement for overtime work experience

Judicial practice largely confirms that the Pension Fund authorities unlawfully refuse to recalculate pensions to Chernobyl survivors taking into account the additional payment for overtime. Administrative courts emphasize the following key positions:

• The unlawfulness of the requirement for primary documents if the length of service and earnings can be confirmed by alternative evidence, such as certificates from archival institutions, extracts from work book entries, extracts from registers.
• The mandatory application of Part 2 of Article 56 of Law No. 796-XII in the presence of confirmed length of service, even if the periods of work fall on the years 1986–1990.
• The principle of social protection, which provides that the absence of certain documents cannot deprive a citizen of the right to additional payment if other confirmations indicate the presence of overtime.

In specific court decisions, it has been established that the Pension Fund must take into account the overtime supplement when recalculating pensions, and refusals based on formal remarks are unlawful. Courts often oblige the Pension Fund to bring pensions into line with the law, recalculate with the supplement, and pay the difference for past periods.