Appeal to the President of Ukraine V.A. Zelensky
To the President of Ukraine V.A. Zelensky
Dear Mr. President!
I am addressing you with a big request, which today is of decisive importance for preserving the entire agro-industrial complex of Ukraine!
This is not just a request – it is a cry of despair!
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine announced changes to the procedure for booking employees and updating the criteria for determining enterprises as critically important in particular.
It is proposed to increase the average wage at the enterprise for a reserved employee to 2.5 minimum wages (UAH 20,000), which is impossible for small and medium-sized agricultural producers, since agricultural production is seasonal and absolutely depends on natural and unstable climatic conditions (either drought, hurricanes and other unfavorable, and sometimes even critical climatic conditions for agriculture)!
The agricultural year begins in March and lasts until the end of October, and for another four months, drivers and operators of agricultural machinery are practically unemployed except for simple repairs, since the latest equipment is largely repaired by service specialists because it is impossible to perform this work with their own employees (high-end equipment and special training are needed).
The introduction of this criterion will lead to the impossibility of booking agricultural workers and mobilizing them and, as a result, the impossibility of carrying out field work, which will lead to a food catastrophe in the country and inevitable famine.
The agricultural sector provides 70% of the state’s foreign exchange earnings, from which defense and the social sphere are financed. If this criterion is introduced, the state will be left without currency, as a result of which all other spheres financed by these funds will collapse. In order to prevent catastrophic consequences and destruction of agriculture, we propose not to apply this criterion to agricultural producers, but to replace it with a fair one, namely, to link the number of reserved workers to the amount of land that is being cultivated by the enterprise, with the calculation of one worker per 150 hectares of land that is owned or used by the enterprise.
I kindly ask you to protect all Ukrainian farmers from inevitable destruction!
With respect, sincerely yours, well-wisher
Academician and First Vice-President
of the Academy of Economic Sciences of Ukraine
A.V. Peshko
