Economic mobilization deferment must be resolved urgently — opinion
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The issue of economic reservation from mobilization is acute and long overdue for a resolution. Not only for the IT industry, but for Ukrainian business in general.
We’re in a protracted war, and we must work out systemic solutions to ensure both the military needs and our economy’s stability, at the same time.
The reservation [or deferment] procedure already exists, but it can hardly be called orderly. Therefore, I fully support economic reservation [granting mobilization deferment based on taxes paid to the state] as a solution and believe that it will help businesses maintain sustainability and bring more order and transparency to the process. I think it’s incorrect when economic reservation is called reservation for the rich, when in fact it’s about reservation of critical employees. Of course, there are well-off people among them, but that’s why they are important for businesses, because they perform critically important tasks.
Talking about IT, the industry today does a lot not only for the economy through taxes and employment, but also in terms of humanitarian and military aid, digital solutions for the military, drone supply, transportation, MilTech innovation, etc. It’s very important for the economy that the IT industry remains stable. Therefore, critical employees must be granted deferments.
I don’t have a formula for how many employees could be reserved. SoftServe already has 10% of its eligible employees as mobilized and veterans of this war. At the same time, only about two dozen employees are reserved, which is less than 0.5% of the total pool of draft-eligible workers. This is catastrophically small and significantly affects our ability to conduct business, not to mention its development. Therefore, I’ll welcome any government decision that will allow us to move forward with the solution to this issue as soon as possible. We’re ready for dialogue and joint work to develop effective mechanisms in the state’s interests.
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