Order from employer to go to VLK: how to protect your rights

Examination by a doctor and the personal file of an employed worker. Photo: UNIAN, Pexels, collage Novyny.LIVE

Employees of enterprises who have an officially issued deferment from mobilization are by law already protected from forced referrals to the VLK, since current provisions of government resolutions directly prohibit such medical examinations until the deferment period ends. Therefore, when an employer demands that someone undergo the VLK medical examination, attention should be paid to the illegality of such actions.

This was stated by lawyer Vladyslav Deriy, Novyny.LIVE reports.

Legal grounds to refuse to undergo a medical examination at the Territorial Commissariat (TCK) at the employer’s initiative

Workers contacted lawyers for clarification because of a situation at work where the HR department insists on undergoing a medical examination and warns that there is a corresponding order.

Lawyer Vladyslav Deriy confirmed the complete illegality of such demands from the employer. The expert emphasized that the law does not provide for an obligation for those liable for military service to undergo a medical examination on their own every year, and persons whose deferment period has not ended do not have the right to be sent anywhere at all.

The procedure for conducting conscription is clearly regulated at the government level, and the relevant rules are fixed in official resolutions. According to point 63 of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine resolution No. 560, persons liable for military service whose deferment from conscription for military service during mobilization for the special period has not expired are not sent for a medical examination.

But exceptions to this rule are only a few specific cases: if citizens voluntarily decide to undergo an examination, are accepted into military service under contract, or previously had the status of limited fitness and did not undergo a repeat check to determine fitness for service, except for persons with disabilities recognized in the prescribed manner.

Novyny.LIVE also wrote that many persons liable for military service make the same mistake by coming to the military medical commission without a full package of medical documents. Even if a person has a confirmed serious diagnosis, that alone is not a basis for being declared unfit for service. For the VLK to make a decision, up-to-date medical conclusions, examination results, and documents confirming the presence of persistent functional disorders of the body are required.

If the certificate of illness is still at the approval stage and the validity period of the previous VLK conclusion has already expired, this does not mean that the person liable for military service must independently undergo the medical examination again. Lawyers explain that after the commission’s initial decision the person is not automatically removed from the military register, however repeat passage of the VLK is possible only upon the appropriate referral or an official requirement.