On a construction site outside Kyiv, welding-crew foreman Oleh carries a document in his chest pocket that matters more than his tower-crane operator’s licence — a draft deferral certificate. Without it, twenty years of experience mean nothing to the recruitment office, and without him, the site is left without the person holding the welding seams together along with the deadlines.
Draft deferral for workers in 2026 is a topic being discussed in every HR department across the country this summer: the government has rewritten the rules of the game, raised salary thresholds, and is checking more strictly who is truly critical and who simply wants to keep their staff. For the construction industry, where state contracts and handover deadlines are counted in days, this is not an abstract question — it is a question of whether the crew will show up for their shift tomorrow.
Who qualifies for draft deferral in 2026
It is not the employee who can apply for a deferral, but the enterprise — and only one that has officially received status as critical to the economy or defence. The mechanism is governed by Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 76, “Certain Issues of Reserving Conscripts During Mobilisation and Wartime,” which the government amended on 30 May 2026 via Resolution No. 692 — in effect since 2 June 2026.
The main conditions, checked much more strictly this year:
- the enterprise must have confirmed critical-enterprise status — industry criteria for private business are set by the relevant ministry;
- the average salary of the employee being deferred must be no lower than UAH 25,941 (three minimum wages) for most enterprises, and no lower than UAH 21,618 for businesses in frontline territories;
- the share of deferred employees cannot exceed 50% — calculated from the number of conscription-eligible employees at the enterprise, not from the entire staff;
- for construction companies, a separate requirement has been added — at least 20 insured employees in the last reporting month and two active contracts worth at least UAH 3 million each (Ministry of Communities and Territories Development Order No. 1260, in effect since 3 July 2026).
How reservation through Diia.Reserve works
Technically, applications are submitted online: the manager or an authorised person logs into Diia with a qualified electronic signature, selects the deferral service, and fills in the employee’s details — with documents ready, this takes about ten minutes. The system usually issues a decision within a day, three days at most.
The paperwork does not end there. By 1 September 2026, every enterprise that already holds critical status is required to reconfirm it under the new criteria — otherwise the deferral is automatically cancelled for the entire staff. And if a company exceeds the 50% limit, its manager has 10 working days to file an application to cancel some of the deferrals: even a temporary drop in staff below the established minimum instantly strips the company of its critical status.
What draft deferral changes for business and people
For the employer, reservation has stopped being a one-time formality — it is a process that must be maintained continuously: tracking salaries, watching limits, filing renewal documents on time. For the employee, a deferral certificate means being able to go to work calmly without checking for a summons notification every morning. And for industries like construction, where state contracts depend on specific people with specific experience, clear criticality criteria are the difference between a facility handed over on time and construction grinding to a halt.
The system is becoming more transparent, but also more demanding — so deferral conditions should be checked afresh every year, not assumed from last year’s certificate.
Working with official draft deferral at SpecServis
SpecServis is a critical construction enterprise, so some of our vacancies come with an official deferral from mobilisation for the duration of the employment contract. Our list of current vacancies is updated regularly.
More about working conditions on the SpecServis careers page.
