Dear citizens, do you know what will happen if the Draft Law on Social and Child Protection is adopted?
1. Basic social aid, the so-called material family benefit, will be limited to 63.5 euros per month – for a person living alone – up to 120.7 euros per month for a family of five or more members. Therefore, regardless of whether the family consists of parents living with three, four, five or more children, the benefit is limited to a maximum of 120.7 euros, whole 55 euros less than the absolute poverty line, which is only valid for one person! In a country where food basket for a four-member family costs 802.2 euros, the family is provided with 108 euros of benefit, even 7.4 times less than the food basket!
2. Parents with children who are capable of working will be able to receive social aid (material family benefit) for only 9 months a year! This measure, combined with the previous one, will make proper care of children impossible and will affect the functionality of the family. It will force parents, who are unable to obtain formal employment, to struggle to earn money for the family without losing the right to scarce material benefits, which will encourage the growth of grey economy and other illegalities.
3. Employers, who hire women (parents) with a salary greater than the average salary in the state (476 euros), will only receive compensation up to the amount of the average salary during the maternity-parental leave. This will particularly encourage discrimination against women at work, especially educated women whose salaries exceed the average. It can be expected that women (parents) will end maternity-parental leave earlier, in order to ensure the survival of their families. The level of grey economy will be further increased because employers will pay a part of the salary to women (parent) “on hands” to reduce costs, as is already the practice of a large number of them, and the state is failing to adequately deal with these issues. Therefore, future pensions of women (parents) will be lower. All this will lead to even lower birth rate, which is already worryingly low in Montenegro, the lowest since 1950!
4. The employer, who hires a pregnant woman three months prior to the commencement of maternity leave, will not receive compensation of her salary during her leave. In this manner, women who were employed for a fixed period of time before they got pregnant, will lose all possibilities to enter into permanent employment until they give birth and return to work.
5. The employer, who hires a pregnant woman six months prior to the commencement of maternity leave, will receive compensation of only 50% of her salary during her leave. Consequences will be the same as above.
6. The employer, who hires a pregnant woman 12 months prior to the commencement of maternity leave (i.e. if the employer hires her two months before she became pregnant), will receive compensation of 70% of her salary during maternity leave. This measure will particularly encourage “looking at the stomach” and avoiding the employment of young women. All of these measures (3. to 6.) are opposing the constitutional obligation of Montenegro to encourage childbirth and to ensure gender equality!
7. There will no longer be guarantees that the compensation of salary during maternity-parental leave cannot be lower than the minimum salary.
8. Mothers with disabilities will receive aid of 100 euros per month.
9. Child or parent of a child with special needs will not receive additional benefits other than 63 euros of benefit for care and support, regardless of the fact that these parents are usually forced to take care of their children directly and constantly, regardless of their age and because no additional support services generally exist. (The Serbian Parliament is considering a proposal of the Ombudsman to allow the parents of these children to work part time, to reallocate working hours and night shifts, to give special compensation from the state to unemployed parents because they provide care and support to the child who constantly need it, and that is not available through existing support services).
10. Shelters for the homeless will only be established if it is assessed that “there is a need” to establish such institutions.
11. Homeless people living in train cars, bus stops, caves, tents, and other places unfit for living, will not be considered homeless because they are not living “in the open air” or “on the streets.”
12. There will be no rights for apatrids – men, women and children without citizenship who live in Montenegro.
Are you really indifferent to all of this?! If you are personally threatened by these proposals of the Government or you would simply be ashamed if this law is adopted in Montenegro, declared by the Constitution as a state of social justice, sign the petition and support the joint protest against this Draft Law on Social and Child Protection. Due to legal restrictions (a gathering of more than 20 people must be registered at the Ministry of the Interior five days earlier), 20 representatives of our organizations will gather on Tuesday outside the building of the Parliament to present the MPs with your signatures of support.
