Human Rights Action sent a letter today to the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, proposing eight amendments to the Draft Law on Social and Child Protection.

All eight proposed amendments are already known to the proposer, except for the latest on compensation for maternity-parental leave, which we added thanks to the Parents Association. We just found out that this amendment, like others filed by MPs from the opposition, were rejected today by the Committee on Health, Labour and Social Welfare.

A possibility remains for the proposer to act, i.e. for MPs to propose amendments next week, when the debate on the Draft Law will began in the plenary.

We are confident that these proposals are not good, that they will increase poverty in Montenegro and that everything will particularly have consequences on children.

Part of our letter to the Minister:

We emphasize our most important remarks:

a) We consider the proposed limitation of material benefit for a family of five members (usually parents with three children) to 120 euros a month absolutely inadequate compared to the real cost of living. We emphasize that the minimum food basket for a household with four members, determined by MONSTAT for March 2013, amounted to 802.2 euros, or almost 7.5 times more than the amount of material benefit provided for a family of four! Therefore, we suggest adjusting the amount of material benefit by increasing (or decreasing) consumer prices, as is the case in the Law on Social Protection of Serbia. We particularly urge that the amount is not limited only to families of five members (usually with three children) and that it is increased for families with six or more members. The current proposal seems like a punishment for families with more than three children in the country with declining birth rate and where the constitutional obligation is to create conditions that encourage childbirth.

b) The proposed limitation of the right to material benefit to only 9 months a year (Art. 29) would in practice mean leaving families with children without any means of livelihood for a period of 3 months a year! This is a particular concern in circumstances when the conditions for exercising the right to material family benefit are very restrictive and allow (at best) a minimum of owning property. What about those who are not housed?! It is easy to foresee a situation in which the Law on Social and Child Protection itself, instead of a more or less preserved family, makes people homeless and leaves children without parental care, who then have to be separated from their parents and placed in the Institution for Children without Parental Care. Dissolution of marriages and increased criminality are to be expected, all of which will have negative impact in every sense on the whole society!

c) In addition to obligations established by international standards, human and civilized minimum of obligation is to establish shelters for the homeless. Otherwise, how can we prevent our fellow citizens from perishing on the streets in fires, trying to warm up?! The government “could have” established such a shelter by now, and did not, except for a temporary funding of a shelter established by an NGO.

d) We consider the proposed limitation of the compensation to the employer on the basis of maternity leave for working women discriminatory and discouraging for women who decide to have children. We should not forget that the proposal encourages the suppression of employment of young women in general, as well as bending the law in a way to provide women with minimum salaries, while a (untaxed) part of the salary is received off the official record. This and similar phenomena have already taken hold, and they turned out to be difficult to supress. In addition, we consider the justification that such restrictive legal provisions will suppress individual abuses, popularly speaking, “throwing out the baby with the bath water”. The state must demonstrate its commitment and determination to supress abuse, through effective operation of inspection services and justice, and not by abolishing rights of citizens to reduce work for the inspection. Respect for human rights and creation of conditions that encourage childbirth are constitutional obligations of Montenegro, which are completely compromised by this Draft Law!

We hope that there is still a real possibility that this Draft Law will not be adopted.