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MONITORING OF CUSTODIAL SETTINGS IN UKRAINE:
money was borrowed for some current
needs of the institution;
•
in Seleznivka penitentiary (No. 143)
wages of prisoners were unlawfully
subjected to insurance deductions; the
administration of this institution failed
to create proper working conditions
and violates the constitutional right
to wages no lower than established
by law. Minimal wage rates are also
applied to remuneration of prisoners’
work in Berdychiv (No. 70), Bucha (No.
85), Stari Babany (No. 92), Shepetivka
(No. 98) and other penitentiaries;
in Bucha penitentiary (No. 85) the monitoring
team established the facts of unpaid work
by prisoners who were not informed about
the applicable wages. Moreover, prisoners
who are involved in on-site maintenance
and service activities and work full working
days are paid only 50 % of the minimal
wages.
Penitentiaries do not provide their
prisoners with the opportunity to
perform paid work in order to improve
the prospects for their employment upon
release.
During the monitoring visit to Bucha
penitentiary (No. 85) the number of
prisoners working in the production area
totaled 226 although according to the
financial plan of the facility this number
was to be 159. This situation created the
conditions for unfair remuneration: in 2013
prisoners were making, on the average,
only 370 UAH per month.
NPM also found multiple facts of institution
administrations’ signing tolling contracts
with businesses (specifically, on making of
knitted garments and other products), with
application of the minimum rates for labor
costs. For example, the labor costs of “Gloria
Jeans” Company per one T-shirt made by
prisoners of Seleznivka penitentiary (No. 143)
were only 0.11 UAH. Similarly, in Berdychiv
penitentiary (No. 70) the prisoners’ pay per
one pair of gloves was 0.05 UAH. Therefore,
the contracts made by these institutions
were economically unfeasible for prisoners
as they excluded any possibility of fair
wages.
Examination of labor remuneration of a
team of maintenance workers at the trailer
assembly site in Bucha penitentiary (No.
85) revealed that within 3 months (from
August through October 2013) 7 prisoners
were officially paid only 10 UAH per month,
which amounts to degrading treatment
and may be deemed nothing else but
slave labor.
Another problem is that SPSU inadequately
finances expenses for remuneration of
on-site service personnel engaged out
of prisoners. It should be noted that such
costs are financed from the state budget
as per Line Item 2111 “Wages”, jointly
with the expenses for remuneration of
hired personnel. Indeed, the wages of
this category of prisoners were paid at a
rate less than half of the minimal amount
established by law, despite the fact
that most of these prisoners, given the
continuity of the support technological
cycles at penitentiary institutions (canteens,
inter-regional
hospitals,
laundries,
etc.), worked at least 8 hours per day,
including weekends and holidays. Work on
weekends and holidays, in violation of the
requirements of the Labor Code of Ukraine,
was not remunerated at all.
There are instances of unjustified
deductions from prisoners’ wages.
In 2011 the State Penitentiary Service
of Ukraine signed a memorandum of
cooperation in the field of insurance with
a private joint stock entity “Ukrainian
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