On 9-10 May, the Aspen Institute Kyiv held a seminar "Justice, integrity, leadership" for the managers of regional branches of the National Mediation and Reconciliation Service of Ukraine. The event was held with the support of the Council of Europe project "Enhanced social protection in Ukraine".

The seminar was initiated by Dmytro Kukhniuk, head of the National Mediation and Reconciliation Service of Ukraine.

Erlend Falch, Deputy Head of the of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, welcomed the participants of the seminar stating that supporting such kind of events strengthens the capacity of state authorities and contributes to the development and implementation of policies and practices in the field of social and labour rights according to the European standards. "The European Social Charter sets standards for collective labour relations in the light of joint consultations, collective bargaining, labour dispute resolution and collective actions. Accepted by Ukraine Article 6 of the Charter "The right to bargain collectively" refers directly to the activities of the National Mediation and Conciliation Service. Integrity, leadership and justice are extremely important concepts for representatives of the National Service, as its role in the resolution of collective labour disputes, mediation, prevention of collective labour disputes and promotion of social dialogue is crucial".

According to Denys Poltavets, program development director of the Aspen Institute Kyiv, Ukrainian society is going through the development stage when it has no practical experience in addressing the challenges faced because of a full-scale war. Accordingly, it is necessary to involve stakeholders from various fields in the dialogue as widely as possible to find out how to act efficiently under the new conditions. One of such challenges is meeting the great demand for justice. "The general social demand for justice is growing, sometimes within not quite constructive forms. The National Mediation and Reconciliation Service has a mandate from the society to resolve perhaps one of the most significant types of such disputes – labour disputes. It is extremely important for the employees of the service to understand what specific forms justice can take in our realities. Balancing the interests of employers, employees, trade unions, and the state is one of the pillars on which Ukrainian society stands. The effectiveness of both our resistance and development depends on this dynamic balance".

Dmytro Kukhniuk, head of the National Mediation and Reconciliation Service of Ukraine, emphasized that justice, integrity and leadership did become the main topic of the seminar for a purpose. "Justice, integrity and leadership are the values of our Service, which we all developed together at the strategic session last December. Moving further in this direction, we would like to come to a common definition of what justice is, how we understand integrity, what our leadership is. The National Mediation and Reconciliation Service is an important factor in social dialogue issues, which acquires special importance in connection with European integration processes, large-scale invasion, digitalisation. Therefore, following these human values is extremely important for employees of the Service, which should ensure peace in labour relations, harmony and sustainable development of the society".

The participants discussed the following issues in the form of dialogue:

• The need for a clearer understanding of labour market dynamics.
• Emergence of new groups in the Ukrainian society (in particular, internally displaced persons), types of relations and challenges related to them.
• Development of communication between the state and business.
• Capacity building of the labour collectives and their associations, the role of the Service in these processes.

Also, Maksym Shcherbatiuk, program director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, made an overview of the European Social Charter system for the seminar participants.

The seminar was moderated by Denys Poltavets, director of program development of the Aspen Institute Kyiv, and Rasim Babanly, first deputy chief of staff of the Supreme Court.

Earlier the Aspen Institute Kyiv also held a seminar "Social dialogue as a tool of understanding" for the National Mediation and Reconciliation Service with the support of the Council of Europe project “Enhanced social protection in Ukraine”.

The Council of Europe project "Enhanced social protection in Ukraine" aims to increase the level of awareness of the Ukrainian state authorities on the European standards in the field of social rights, in particular the European Social Charter (revised) and the case-law of the European Committee of Social Rights.