14 February 2024
On 14 February 2024, the First Senate considered the case upon the constitutional complaint of Viktor Haftoniuk in the public part of the plenary session in the form of written proceedings.
During the plenary session, the judge-rapporteur in the case, Oksana Hryshchuk, reported that the applicant had applied to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to verify the compliance of certain provisions of Article 2 of the Law of Ukraine “On Measures to Legislatively Ensure the Reform of the Pension System” No. 3668-VI dated July 8, 2011 as amended (hereinafter - Law No. 3668) with the Constitution of Ukraine.
These regulations stipulate that “the maximum amount of pension (except for pension payments made from the Accumulative Pension Fund) <...> (including allowances, increases, additional pensions, targeted financial assistance, pensions for special services to Ukraine, indexation and other pension supplements established by law, except for supplementary payments to certain categories of persons who have special services to the Motherland), assigned (recalculated) in accordance with <... > the laws of Ukraine <...> “On the Status and Social Protection of Citizens Affected by the Chornobyl Disaster” <...> may not exceed ten subsistence minimums established for persons who have lost their ability to work”.
In addition, the applicant requests a constitutional review of the first sentence of Article 67.3 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Status and Social Protection of Citizens Affected by the Chornobyl Disaster” No. 796-XII dated February 28, 1991 as amended (hereinafter - Law No. 796), according to which “the maximum amount of pension (including supplements, increases, targeted cash benefits, pensions for special services to Ukraine, indexation and other payments established by law, except for supplements to pensions of certain categories of citizens, additional pensions, targeted financial assistance, pensions for special services to Ukraine, indexation and other pension supplements established by law, except for supplements to allowances for certain categories of persons who have special services to the Motherland) may not exceed ten subsistence minimums established for persons who have lost their ability to work”.
According to the case file, Viktor Haftoniuk has the status of a participant in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chornobyl disaster (category 1).
In particular, in May 2023, Viktor Haftoniuk filed a lawsuit with the Vinnytsia District Administrative Court against the Main Directorate of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Vinnytsia Region (the “Directorate”), in which he requested to declare unlawful the Directorate's actions to pay the pension accrued to him from 1 December 2022, with its amount limited to ten subsistence minimums, established for persons who have lost their ability to work on the basis of the provisions of Article 2 of Law No. 3668, and to oblige the Directorate to pay the pension assigned to him under Article 54 of Law No. 796 on a monthly basis without limiting its amount from 1 December 2022 to the day of loss of the right, taking into account the amounts paid.
The court of first instance upheld the applicant's claim, as did the court of appeal. The Directorate, disagreeing with the court decisions of these courts, filed a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court. Following its review, the Supreme Court upheld the cassation appeal, cancelled the court decisions of the lower courts and delivered a new decision dismissing Viktor Haftoniuk's claim against the Directorate.
In explaining its position, the Supreme Court stated, among other things, that persons whose pensions were granted and recalculated in accordance with the regulations referred to in Article 2 of Law No. 3668, in particular, in accordance with Law No. 796, and whose pensions exceed the maximum pension amount established by Law No. 3668, are subject to the provisions of the legislation in force at the time of the recalculation of the pension. As the recalculation of Viktor Haftoniuk's pension, which resulted in the amount of his pension exceeding the maximum (UAH 51,840), was carried out during the period of Article 2 of Law No. 3668, the provisions of the said article, which regulates the limitation of pensions to ten subsistence minimums established for persons who have lost their ability to work, should be applied to the regulation of the disputed legal relations.
According to the applicant, the contested provisions of Law No. 3668 and Law No. 796 are unconstitutional as they violate his right to an adequate level of social protection guaranteed by the state for persons affected by the Chornobyl disaster; significantly narrow the content and scope of his right to pension benefits; violate his right to own, use and dispose of his property, as well as his right to a safe environment for life and health and to compensation for damage caused by the violation of this right.
The court examined the case file in the public part of the plenary session and proceeded to the in-camera part for a decision.
The video of the plenary session is available on the official website of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in the section “Archive of video broadcasts of the sessions”.
Oksana Hryshchuk, Viktor Kolisnyk, Viktor Kryvenko (from left to right)
