The Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC) has appealed to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal, the First Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko, and the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Vitaliy Koval to amend the methodology for calculating the average wage used to reserve employees.

The UAC emphasizes that the current mechanism for maintaining the reservation creates significant difficulties for farmers. In particular, it requires companies to pay at least UAH 20,000 per month to individuals performing daily work under civil law contracts and to mobilized employees of the company who are in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“No business can stand such a financial burden, especially when it comes to day labor, which is objectively short-term, such as sorting vegetables or picking berries. Also, companies are not able to increase the amount of voluntary assistance provided to the families of mobilized workers on their own initiative several times by continuing to pay the minimum wage,” the farmers explain.

In fact, companies face a choice: either to refuse to officially hire day laborers and pay salaries to mobilized workers, or to remain without reservations, which in the current environment means the termination of economic activity.

Andrii Dykun, the Chairman of the Ukrainian Agri Council, emphasized that the absence of appropriate changes will soon lead to an increase in social tension in rural areas and dissatisfaction with the government's actions, which have led to income losses for the most socially vulnerable groups of the population.