Almost 8 million Ukrainians have switched to electronic work books: what does this change

The process of transition from paper work books to electronic format is actively underway in Ukraine. Since the relevant law came into force on June 10, 2021, almost 7.9 million digitized work books have already been submitted to the Pension Fund of Ukraine. This has become an important stage in the digitalization of labor processes and the country's pension system.

According to the press service of the Pension Fund of Ukraine (PFU), out of 7 million 690 thousand scanned copies of work books, the largest share — over 4.58 million — was submitted by insured persons (i.e. employers). Another over 3.1 million scanned copies came directly from insured persons, i.e. employees who independently took care of entering data into the electronic register.

The "Electronic Work Book" service has been operating on the PFU's electronic services web portal since December 2019. During this period, more than 8.35 million scanned paper documents were sent through it for conversion into digital format. The service allows users to send scanned copies of work books and other documents confirming seniority, signed with a qualified electronic signature.

The digital format of the work book has a number of advantages: it allows you to avoid the loss of paper documents, simplifies the process of accounting for seniority and is an important prerequisite for the automatic assignment of a pension. Thanks to this system, a pension can be assigned without an additional application by a person - after reaching retirement age.

According to current legislation, employers are obliged to transfer to the PFU information about employment, transfer, dismissal of employees, as well as about completing conscription and other events that were previously entered in paper work books.

All collected information is stored in the Register of Insured Persons of the State Register of Social Insurance. The digital work book automatically records entries from 2004, if employment began earlier - the employee can independently add the relevant information by sending scanned documents through the portal. Such a transition to an electronic format is a step towards transparency and convenience in managing the work experience of Ukrainians.