Wednesday, November 19 2014

Parliament of Armenia amended the Law "on temporary incapacity allowances" in the first reading on 19 November along with the Law "on state pensions", Law "on profit tax," and the Labor Code. 

Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Artem Asatryan says budget expenditures on temporary incapacity allowances and maternity pays have grown fourfold over the last 4 years.

A survey revealed that pregnant women are employed 2-3 months before the baby birth to receive allowances. There were numerous cases when salary of pregnant women was increased a few months before the maternity leave. The earlier suggested restrictions of the maternity pay depending on the working experience of women have been removed from the draft amendments. Now, the amendments look to pay maternity allowances also to the unemployed women based on 50% of the minimum salary. The minimum maternity allowances of the women in employment will be as much. The upper ceiling of the allowances will be 15 minimum salaries or 1 million drams. This means that 99.65% of 110,000 working women at maternity age will receive 100% compensation for temporary incapacity to work. There are about 400 women who receive salary above 1 million drams. The minister explains that the bill suggests that the maternity pay of the given category of women is partially provided by the employer. The maximum maternity pay for this category of women in employment will exceed the ceiling of 1 million drams (4.6 million drams).  The minister says the maternity pay for the unemployed women will total 138.000 drams and will be provided even in case of a dead born infant. The point is that 30,000 out of 42,000 women are not in employment.

The state budget envisages 4 billion drams for maternity pays. 

The minister says the Government is ready to find more funds to increase the allowances in the case birthrate growth. "The allowances are often not used purposefully, this is the problem," the minister says pointing at the need of targeted assistance.