Top Ukrainian officials are pushing a behind-the-scenes initiative to set up their own high-level trade union consultation body in an effort to reduce the power of the country’s largest union associations, openDemocracy can reveal.
Documents obtained via freedom of information law show how two leading MPs from Ukraine’s ruling political party proposed that the government set up a brand new ‘Council of Trade Union Leaders’ in July 2023 – in an explicit attempt to sidestep the government’s existing institution for dialogue with employers and trade unions.
The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers approved the initiative in August.
