European Trade Union Committee for Education

On 17 November 2015 the 8th Congress of the Trade Union of Education and Science Workers of Ukraine took place in Kyiv. The Congress evaluated activities for the last five years and outlined future priorities. A number of official guests attended the Congress, including ETUCE European Director Martin Rømer, President of the Trade Union of Bulgarian Teachers Yanka Takeva, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Pavlo Khobzey, Member of the Parliament and Chairman of the Parliamentary Subcommittee on Education Taras Kremin, the ILO National Coordinator in Ukraine Serhiy Savchuk.

In his report to the Congress, TUESWU President Georgiy Trukhanov stressed that the trade union’s activities had been carried out in a climate of change as regards the social and political life, in times of financial crisis and economic downturn with multiple increases in utility rates and consumer prices. However, the trade union succeeded in preventing the adoption of a number of changes to the legislation which had aimed to restrict or cancel existing social and economic rights of education workers. Thus, the trade union blocked the Ukrainian government’s intention to increase the student-teacher ratio to 18 students per teacher.

The Trade Union has successfully appealed some austerity measures at courts. For example, the court is still considering the trade union’s suit concerning reinstatement of the right of education workers to receive fixed monthly allowances of 20% and 50% of their basic salary. Georgiy Trukhanov underlined some labour and socio-economic issues that should be urgently addressed. First of all it is the need to increase wages of education workers at least to the level guaranteed by Article 57 of the Law of Ukraine on Education. This includes increased rates and coefficients in the single tariff scale for public sector workers.

At present the trade union is working on its reply to the Ministry of Education’s new proposal for the law on education . The trade union’s position is clear: the new law should not reduce existing rights of education workers.

The TUESWU president thanked Education International and ETUCE for their solidarity support in difficult times that helped to re-establish the activities of the TUESWU head office after the fire and personally thanked Martin Rømer for his support. “The trade union opposes privatisation and commercialisation of education. Once again we emphasise that education is not a commodity and does not have the sole purposeof satisfying the needs of the labour market. It is a basis for the development of the society and and investment in the future of the nation”, concluded TUESWU president Georgiy Trukhanov.

ETUCE European Director Martin Rømer addressing the Congress expressed his solidarity and underlined the importance of the Ukrainian teacher union for ETUCE. Mr. Rømer briefed the delegates on the sectoral social dialogue in education at European level. “Ukraine needs investments in education to support a quality development of teaching. It is evident that quality education cannot be developed without higher salary and higher professional standards. ETUCE is open to discuss how we can strengthen our cooperation and solidarity”, he stressed.

The ILO national coordinator in Ukraine briefed the delegates on the development of the decent work country programme for Ukraine and informed that the Parliament Committee had sent for the ILO expert opinion on the new draft Labour Code of Ukraine that had passed the first reading and was being prepared for the second reading in Parliament.

During the discussion of the president’s report Congress delegates raised a lot of painful issues, including low level of teachers’ wages, lack of social dialogue with the Ministry of Education, a need for active work with students, coordination of trade union organisations in Lugansk and Donetsk regions. After a lively discussion the Congress approved the five-year report and defined the main directions of activity of the Trade Union of Education and Science of Ukraine for the next Congress period 2016-2020.

The Congress re-elected Georgiy Trukhanov for President of the Trade Union of Education and Science Workers of Ukraine. Liubov Garbarenko and Serhiy Romaniuk were re-elected Vice-Presidents of the teacher union. The Congress also elected three vice-presidents on a voluntary basis: Serhiy Pugachev (head of Vinnitsa Regional Committee of the Trade Union), Volodymyr Tsvykh (head of the trade union organisation at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv) and Olga Chabaniuk (head of the students’ trade union organisation at the Kyiv National Economic University).