Opening the meeting, Chairperson of the Committee Liudmyla Denisova said: "Since the start of the anti-terror operation, new laws have been adopted, effective laws have been amended. They enshrine labor guarantees for mobilized employees; provide ATO participants with status of combatants; guarantees in the system of social insurance, pension coverage, social protection of both: this category of citizens and their family members. Respective costs to ensure the said guarantees were envisioned both in the state budget for 2014 and were expanded in the state budget for 2015."
However, Denisova said that some high-ranking officials responsible for elaboration and implementation of state acts as to the social protection of ATO participants, had not taken appropriate measures to timely pass bylaws enabling the realization of those persons' rights to legislatively enshrined guarantees.
The Chairperson of the Committee also drew attention to the fact that 1.5 years ago there was a problem with the assignation of status of a combatant, the status of disabled war veterans, and war participants to volunteers or enterprises' employees, who took part in ATO. No attention has either been paid to the families of such persons, who were killed in the combat activities. "Despite the fact that the problem was tackled at the legislative level in April 2015, those people acquired an opportunity to receive the said status only starting late September 2015. Protraction in adoption of the order [of assignation of the statuses] deprived them of timely receipt of privileges in payment for housing-public utility services," Denisova said.
The Chairperson of the Committee noted that guarantees of preservation of jobs, positions behind mobilized employees had been set not for all categories of citizens.
"No attention was paid to the persons, who worked for individual entrepreneurs, at farms, agricultural production cooperatives. Besides, it remains unknown how executive bodies control the observance of the guarantees by the employers. There are complaints received by the Committee from citizens proving their rights were violated [by the employers]," she said.
Deputy Chairperson of the Committee Serhii Kunitsyn noted that the people's deputies had managed to prevent from the decrease in pensions of persons/servicemen, taking part in ATO, and had also cancelled the 15-percent tax on pensions for the participants of World War Two.
However, respective decision has not been taken on the participants of the combat activities in Donbas.
Serhii Kunitsyn also informed that the awarding commission under the Presidential Administration of Ukraine had been formed with representatives of non-government organizations of ATO participants to ensure transparent, objective and fair mechanism of awarding of servicemen.
The Deputy Chairperson of the Committee drew attention to the necessity to change the order and terms of providing disability status to wounded servicemen, as, in his words the people, who lost their limbs, could obtain an opportunity to start the time-consuming procedure of receipt of a disability category only after spending six to twelve months in a hospital.
At their meeting, the participants of the roundtable, representatives of non-government organizations, who took part in ATO, expressed a number of remarks and concerns over the work of the central executive bodies, first of all of the Ministry of Social Policy, which, in their words: "does not ensure full social protection of the servicemen." In particular, they pointed out "absolute inactivity of the authority in provision of psychological rehabilitation of the ATO troopers."
According to the Secretariat of the Committee, at the end of the roundtable, the Committee members decided to declare unsatisfactory the work of the Ministry of Social Policy as a body responsible for the formation and implementation of the state policy in social protection of war veterans and participants of ATO.