ANNUAL REPORTOF UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS CHAPTER 1 40 1.3. Right to work In 2019, the Commissioner received 929 reports from citizens on violations of labour rights. Given the range of issues raised in appeals and the findings of monitoring, the Commissioner focused on observance of the citizens’ rights to timely payment of wages; timely receipt of financial support due to temporary disability, pregnancy and childbirth, as well as insurance payments; to official registration of labour relations; to employment, in particular of persons with disabilities, to protection against unlawful dismissal. Observing the citizens’ right to receive timely remuneration for work Late payment of wages remains the critical and urgent issue in the field of labour rights. Non-payment of wages is a problem faced by employees of enterprises of private, public and community sectors of the economy, employees of state-funded institutions and organizations. Example The Commissioner was contacted by citizen R. on the fact the leadership of community-owned enterprise of the executive body of Kyiv City Council (Kyiv City State Administration) “Kyivpastrans” violated her right to receive timely salary. Due to the intervention of the Commissioner, the constitutional right to receive remuneration for work was restored. Example The staff of SoE “State Centre for Certification and Expertise of Agricultural Products,” which was managed by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, complained of violation of the wage payment deadlines by the SoE leadership. As a result of the measures taken at the request of the Commissioner, the wage arrears were repaid in full. Example The right of employees of pre-school education institutions of Borzna City Council to receive timely remuneration for work after the measures taken by the Commissioner has been restored. According to the State Statistics Service, since 1 January 2019, wage arrears to employees have increased by UAH 389.3 million (or 14.7%) and as of 1 January 2020 amounted to UAH 3.03 billion (see Annex 1.5). When it comes to the structure of wage arrears structure, at the beginning of 2020, most of the debt (UAH 1.85 billion) was borne by economically active enterprises, institutions and organizations, which did not pay salary to 107,600 employees in time; while the arrears of state-owned enterprises amounted to UAH 518.3 million.