Наталя Хандусенко Work 17 November 2025, 16:13

"The new system can become a whip to force people to work," the president of the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine about the "Obriy" service

The government is launching the «Obriy» system, a single digital employment ecosystem that will combine data from the State Employment Service, the Pension Fund, employers, and employees. This is a pilot project that will start on January 1 and will last two years. Its goal is to simplify and speed up access to key employment services. At the same time, «Obriy» can become a means to force citizens to work, says the president of the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine Oleksiy Miroshnychenko, in particular, to be able to receive a pension. But the Ministry of Economy assures that «Obriy» has nothing to do with the pension rights of citizens, which are protected by law.

How will «Obriy» work?

If the Pension Fund sees information about a specific person for whom a single social contribution has not been paid for two months, or if the person has resigned from work, it transfers it to the State Employment Service, explains Miroshnychenko.

In turn, the State Employment Service contacts the Ministry of Education, which provides information about the person’s education. The Ministry of Social Policy provides data about the unemployed person and their family members, if they receive social assistance.

Then, a file is created for each officially unemployed person. The information is sent to an employee of the State Employment Service, who begins working with this person. He can call them, offer to improve their qualifications, offer them a new job, register as unemployed, or open their own business.

If a person does not want to work

But the system has certain risks, Miroshnychenko believes.

«If a person has resigned and does not want to work: if he does not want to, then he will not. But another question may arise: if a person has qualifications, then why is he not working? The state has registers of social payments, property rights to real estate. The new system can become a whip to force a person to work: either work or not, but then you cannot count on any assistance and do not hope for the same pension that you want to receive,» - says the president of the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine.

Pension Fund’s database of unemployed persons

From January 1, 2026, the Pension Fund will create a special data file for each unemployed person.

Importantly, this does not apply to a certain category of people, namely: minors, people with disabilities of the first and second groups, and students.

According to Miroshnychenko, at the first stage this database will be regional, and the most difficult thing during its creation is to pull up data on a person’s education, because it is not always possible to obtain confirmation of a person’s education.

UPD 17.11.2025 15:45 Supplemented by the Ministry of Economy’s comment

The Ministry of Economy assures that the digital system «Obriy», which aims to connect job seekers and employers, has no relation to the pension rights of citizens, and does not provide for any functionality that would affect the assignment, recalculation or payment of pensions.

«Pension rights of citizens are protected by law and cannot be canceled — by any system, any digital solution or algorithm,» the ministry noted.

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