Five months of harvest and permits to match: setting the term and calendar for an elevator

01 / Order

Two circles on a calendar and twelve months in a contract

The photo reached Olena on the messenger at half past nine in the evening, in mid-March. A wall calendar from the elevator chief engineer's office, last year's: 2 July circled in red marker with a note beside it, first lorry, barley. 26 November circled in blue, last one, maize. The second file was a draft employment contract prepared by HR. Under the term it said: one year.

Olena, who runs client projects at WORKIN, forwarded both files to Nataliia, head of our documents team, with a short question: does this add up? Between the two circles on the calendar lay less than five months. The contract had twelve.

The task itself was clear. The elevator in the south of the Vinnytsia region takes in grain every summer from farms across several communities, and for the harvest it was short of fourteen people: ten grain store workers and four experienced grain dryer operators. The chief engineer set two conditions. People had to be on site a week to ten days before the first lorry, because in a hot summer barley starts coming in at the end of June. And nobody could leave until the last maize had been received, which in a wet autumn can mean December.

HR had drafted the one-year contract from its usual template for permanent staff, because that felt safer. The director, seeing the calendar photo next to the contract, suggested a compromise: take people on from 15 June to the end of December, with a margin at both ends. Both options looked sensible, and both would cost the elevator more than necessary. That is where our part of the work began.

Who is needed

10 grain store workers and 4 grain dryer operators

Last year's season

First lorry on 2 July, last on 26 November

Elevator's condition

People on site before the first lorry and until the last

Question for us

What term to put in the contracts and permits

02 / Country

People whose own harvest ends in June

The elevator did not name a country. The chief engineer described who he was looking for: people who had already worked with grain, understood what a season means and could talk to him and the supervisors without an interpreter. We broke the need down by our criteria: experience in the trade, language, the route against the start date, the partners' candidate reserve and the character of the group.

Everything pointed to Uzbekistan. Grain is grown in many of its regions, and in Kashkadarya and Jizzakh, where our licensed partner works, plenty of men have several seasons at grain receiving points and dryers behind them. Most speak enough Russian to agree things with a supervisor. Citizens of Uzbekistan enter Ukraine without a visa, and a four to seven week route fitted comfortably between March and the end of June. A D visa route of eight to twelve weeks would have fitted too, but only just, with no room for any delay.

There was one more argument that finally won the chief engineer over. Wheat in those regions is harvested earlier than in Vinnytsia, and for many experienced people the home harvest is over in the first half of June. In spring such people would not go anywhere, because they are waiting for their own crop, but by the twentieth of June they are free. Sherzod, our Worker Relations Manager for Uzbekistan, confirmed this in his very first conversation with the partner: the reserve list included candidates who said plainly they could only leave after their own harvest.

Seasonal work is familiar to these people: spring and summer for work, winter at home. A contract until December worried nobody and matched the way they were used to living. The elevator agreed to our proposal at the same meeting.

The best seasonal worker is the one who is free exactly when you need him. In Uzbekistan the home harvest releases people just in time for the harvest in Vinnytsia.

03 / Permit term

How many months to write into the permit

Nataliia started with a fact HR knew but had not connected with money. A work permit for an employee is issued for the term of the employment contract, up to a maximum of two years, and the employer may state a shorter term. So the term in the draft contract is also the permit term. And the state fee depends on the permit term.

The law sets the fee in bands. For a permit of up to six months inclusive the employer pays three subsistence minimums for able-bodied persons as set on 1 January of the year of application. For a permit of six months to a year it pays five. HR's one-year contract and the director's 15 June to 31 December both fell into the second band. The difference was two subsistence minimums per person, twenty-eight for fourteen people, all for weeks when the elevator has neither grain nor work for a seasonal group.

A one-year permit had a second drawback. People would still go home in December, so one-year contracts would have to be ended long before their term, and residence permits tied to those work permits would describe a year nobody was going to spend in Ukraine. A seasonal contract, by contrast, simply ends on an agreed date that everyone knows from day one.

We proposed a third option: contracts and permits from 22 June to 15 December. That is a week short of six months, so the fee stays in the first band, and we deliberately keep that week clear of the boundary so nobody has to argue about how the days are counted. From 22 June to last year's first lorry is ten days. From the last lorry to the end of the contract is almost three weeks.

Before agreeing, the chief engineer went back through five years of intake logs. The earliest first lorry in those years was on 27 June, the latest last lorry on 9 December. Both dates fell inside our term, and that ended the discussion about margins.

04 / Calendar

From the twenty-second of June back to the first interview

Once the contract term was settled, Nataliia laid out the calendar backwards from its first day. On 22 June people sign their contracts. Before that comes arrival and moving in, before arrival the permits in hand, before the permits a complete document package and payment from the elevator, and before the package the interviews, passports and translations.

The most important thing here was the filing window. We counted its last day back from 22 June: a week for the journey and moving in, a week for tickets and packing, up to seven working days for the decision, and two more weeks in case the application was left without motion, since the law gives seven working days to correct documents. That gave 18 May. The first day of the window was limited by another rule: the employment contract must be signed no later than 90 calendar days after the permit is issued, so a permit issued too early would eat into the margin if departure were delayed.

The documents for all fourteen candidates were ready in the first week of May, and we filed on 12 May. From the date the permits were issued to 22 June was just over a month, so the 90 days for the contract covered the arrival with plenty to spare. We also counted the days after entry. Without a visa a citizen of Uzbekistan may stay in Ukraine for 90 days within 180, and the season is longer, so residence permit filings were scheduled for the first two weeks after arrival.

One more date went into the calendar, one the elevator had not asked about. If in autumn the director wanted to keep someone on for the winter, the extension application would have to be filed no later than 20 and no earlier than 50 calendar days before the term ends. For 15 December that window runs from 26 October to 25 November. An extension for the same term costs one subsistence minimum less than the original permit. There is no need to pay a year in advance for someone who might be kept on: the decision can be taken once it is clear what kind of harvest it has been. How a permit extension works is explained on a separate page.

1. Mid-March

   Request, calendar photo, three term options, decision: 22 June - 15 December.

2. End of March

   Elevator documents, draft contract with the seasonal term.

3. 1-10 April

   Interviews in Karshi and Jizzakh, 14 candidates and 3 in reserve.

4. April - May

   Passports, translations with the translator's signature notarised, information sheets.

5. 12 May

   Applications for 14 permits, fee paid from the elevator's account.

6. 20 May

   Permits issued, contracts can be signed until 18 August.

7. 19-20 June

   Departure after the home harvest, visa-free entry, moving in.

8. 22 June

   Employment contracts, group handed over to the elevator.

9. 26 October - 25 November

   Extension window, if anyone is kept on for the winter.

10. 15 December

    Contracts and permits end, departure home.

05 / Selection

Interviews in Karshi between sowing and harvest

In early April Sherzod travelled to the partner in Karshi. The licensed agency had gathered thirty-two candidates from Kashkadarya and Jizzakh who had worked at receiving points, dryers or on grain farms. Uzbek law allows agencies there to charge candidates, but our contract with the partner forbids it, and at every interview Sherzod asked separately whether anyone had asked the person for money to get on the list.

The interviews were in Uzbek, and Sherzod deliberately switched part of each one to Russian: that way he could hear whether a person would manage with a supervisor without him. He asked about experience in concrete terms: which crops the person had received, how many seasons and where, what the job involved. Candidates for the dryer operator roles were also questioned by video by the elevator's chief engineer, who approved four of the six put forward.

The second question was about dates, not experience. Sherzod read the contract term out loud to everyone, 22 June to 15 December, and asked whether they were free for all of it. Bakhtiyor, forty-six, fourteen seasons at a receiving point near Karshi, thought for a moment and asked one thing: would he be home before 28 December, when his daughter was getting married? Sherzod showed him the end date in the draft contract. Bakhtiyor agreed, and from that day 15 December stopped being a line in a document for the group and became a date their families were counting on.

Fourteen people were selected and three more went into the reserve. Sherzod was honest with the reserve candidates: until mid-June they might get a call, and then they would travel on the same terms. How we recruit for seasonal projects is described on the recruitment page.

1. 01

   Bakhtiyor, 46, Kashkadarya

   Fourteen seasons at a receiving point, grain store worker, his daughter's wedding at home on 28 December.

2. 02

   Farhod, 31, Jizzakh

   Five years as a grain dryer operator on a farm, saving to build his own house.

3. 03

   Ulugbek, 24, Kashkadarya

   Two seasons at a receiving point, first time abroad, travelling with Bakhtiyor from the next village.

4. 04

   Reserve

   Three experienced candidates who knew the season dates and kept June free.

06 / Before departure

An end date everyone knew before signing

Every candidate received the information sheet in Uzbek and Russian back in May, before the permit applications. It set out everything a person needs to know before leaving: the elevator's name and address, the position, the pay under the draft contract, the term from 22 June to 15 December, the hostel address, which documents to bring and which costs the candidate covers personally. Sherzod added a separate line about something people usually forget: in November the Vinnytsia region is much colder than home, so warm clothes have to come in the luggage.

The term raised the most questions. Two candidates asked whether they could stay longer if the elevator offered. Sherzod explained how that works: a permit can only be extended if the elevator decides so, and only within the window before the term ends, so nobody would promise it, but nobody would rule it out either. People travelled knowing that their season ended on 15 December, and anything beyond that was a possibility, not a condition.

Before filing, Sherzod checked the passports. Each one had to cover the season with a margin: it is the passport a person crosses the border with and files the residence permit on, and it must not expire before the contract does. One candidate's passport expired in March the following year: enough for this season, but not for coming back next summer. The candidate decided himself to get a new passport over the winter, and we added that to the list for next season.

• the position and the elevator's address, as in the draft contract;
• the contract term from 22 June to 15 December and the expected date of travelling home;
• the hostel address for the border and for registration;
• documents for the border: passport, copy of the permit, the elevator's invitation, proof of housing;
• Sherzod's phone number and the elevator's HR contact;
• confirmation that neither the partner nor WORKIN charged the candidate for the job.

07 / Documents

Fourteen permits with one end date

Nataliia had collected the elevator's documents using the company checklist back in March: the register extract, a power of attorney for the authorised representative, a staffing schedule with both positions. HR turned the draft employment contract from a one-year into a seasonal one, dated 22 June and 15 December, and certified it. Each candidate's package held copies of the passport data pages with a certified Ukrainian translation, a colour photo and the proof of payment. The law does not allow anything more to be demanded, and we did not ask for more.

Before filing, Nataliia checked one thing in all fourteen packages: the end date. The application, the draft contract and the fee calculation all said 15 December, without a single discrepancy. The elevator paid the fee, three subsistence minimums per permit, from its own account using the details we had prepared, and its accountant sent us the payment slips the same day.

We filed on 12 May through the employer's online account. A decision to issue must be made within seven working days, and all fourteen permits were issued on the sixth. The same day each permit got its own row in the key-date register, and the elevator got access to that register.

Permit term

22 June - 15 December

Fee

3 subsistence minimums per permit

Decision

Within 7 working days, issued on the sixth

Contract by

18 August, 90 days from issue

Contract copy

Within 10 days of signing

Extension window

26 October - 25 November

08 / Entry and handover

The twentieth of June: the group arrived before the barley

Bakhtiyor finished his own harvest on 14 June, Farhod two days earlier. On 19 June the group set off: a flight to a neighbouring country, then a coach to the land border. Everyone carried the border documents in a clear folder: passport, copy of the permit, the elevator's invitation, proof of housing and Sherzod's phone number.

Citizens of Uzbekistan enter without a visa, but border guards may ask about the purpose of the trip. Sherzod had gone through these questions with the group back in Karshi and asked them to answer honestly and in their own words: I am going to work at an elevator under a permit, I will live at this address, until 15 December. That last answer matched the date on the permit copy the person was holding. The whole group arrived on 20 June, and Sherzod stayed on the phone until the last of the fourteen had cleared the checks. More about this route is on the visa-free entry page.

On 22 June HR signed employment contracts with all fourteen, and we filed the copies within the 10-day deadline. In the first two weeks the group filed for temporary residence permits in two rounds of seven, and the elevator, as the host party, arranged registration of residence at the hostel address. We had checked the hostel documents back in May: the owner consented to registration, and the lease covered the season up to 15 December.

That summer the first barley lorry rolled onto the weighbridge on 29 June, three days earlier than the year before. By then the people had been living nearby for nine days, had signed contracts and knew the way. From there on it was the harvest and the elevator's own work, and our part moved into migration support.

09 / End of season

The fifteenth of December and a list for next summer

At the end of October, as soon as the extension window opened, Nataliia wrote to the elevator's director: was he keeping anyone on for the winter? The director replied that permanent staff would cover the winter, and no extensions were needed. We recorded his answer in the register, so that on 25 November nobody would wonder whether a deadline had been missed.

The last maize came in on 4 December. The contracts ended on 15 December, the date written into each of them, and the elevator applied to the employment centre for the permits to be cancelled, as the law requires once an employment contract has ended. On 16 December the group set off home, and Bakhtiyor arrived well before his daughter's wedding.

Before they left, Sherzod talked to each of them about next summer. Twelve of the fourteen said they wanted to come back. This year's permits cannot be extended for a new season: an extension is filed while the permit is still valid. So next year there will be new permits, with the same term fitted to the season and the same first fee band, and the filing window will fall in May again. The register kept twelve rows marked for return, the dates of the contact points and one passport to be replaced before filing. How to keep a seasonal team together between seasons is covered in detail in the scenario about a sugar plant season.

Term

22 June - 15 December, one week short of six months

Fee

3 subsistence minimums instead of 5 per permit

Permits

14 issued on the sixth working day

Arrival

20 June, nine days before the first lorry

Next season

12 people on the return list, new permits in May

For us a seasonal project is about exact dates, not a margin just in case: we count the term from the real harvest, fit the whole season into it, and the company pays the state for the time people actually work. The WORKIN replacement guarantee runs for at least 6 months from the worker's first shift, provided the agreed working, pay and housing conditions are met, so in a project like this it covers the entire season. How to set a term with a margin when the season is longer than six months is covered in the scenario about a road-building season, and the company's obligations are described on the employer duties page. Estimated costs for a season can be worked out in the calculator. More on the pages about workers for agriculture and food production, general labourers from abroad and workers from Uzbekistan.

10 / FAQ

Questions and answers