The RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs envisages sending the government the draft law on making amendments and addendum to the RA law On Subsidies for Temporary Disability, which was passed by the National Assembly on 27 October 2010 and entered into force in December. If approved by the government, the draft law will be sent to the National Assembly. This is what RA Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Artur Grigoryan said during a public discourse on the draft law at the ministry on February 14. Grigoryan expressed gratitude to a number of NGOs and active individuals for the past 2-3 months of joint debates that led to the development of this legislative initiative. "If we didn't take any step to amend this law, I am certain that we would be very unsatisfied and would have an unfair law," said the RA Minister of Labor and Social Affairs. "By working and suffering together, we now have quite a good version of the law. I believe we have a very normal draft law and it appears to me that it has dispelled our concerns. There are still several issues that we will touch upon and we will finally have a law that is in everyone's interest," the minister assured. The provision in the law that caused the main concern was the subsidy for pregnancy and childbirth. If the amount of the average monthly salary (income) estimated by the prescribed order exceeds five times the amount prescribed by the RA law On the Minimum Monthly Salary, the subsidy is estimated from five times the amount of the minimum monthly salary. In December 2010, the minimum monthly salary was set at 30,000 drams and 32.5 thousand drams starting January 1, 2011, meaning that this hurts the person receiving the subsidy with an average monthly salary or income that exceeds the 150,000 drams set in December 2010 and the 162.5 thousand drams starting from January. In addition, hired workers receive their subsidies for pregnancy and childbirth only for the working days of the vacation period for pregnancy and childbirth prescribed by the RA Labor Code. On November 24, future mothers tried to submit their demands to the President with the placards reading "Shame, filling the budget at the price of Armenian mothers" and other similar placards in front of the RA presidential residence. As a result, today the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs registers that according to the existing law, the compensation given to people with salaries that are five times more than the minimum monthly salary is proportionally reducing, "which is disputable in the case of pregnancy and childbirth subsidies for hired workers with high incomes". Taking this fact into account, the draft law proposes to lift the maximum threshold for the salary that is five times more than the minimum monthly salary, reconsider the order of estimating the average monthly salary that is accepted as a basis for estimating the subsidy for hired workers by interconnecting it to the salary received in the 12-month period preceding the disability. The salary and the equal incomes, as well as the subsidy will be considered as income. In addition, it is prescribed that the subsidy will also be paid for holidays during the period of temporary disability by not paying for weekends (Saturdays and Sundays). The next amendment proposes that if the amount of subsidy for pregnancy and childbirth estimated according to the law to be reconsidered is higher than the amount of the subsidy estimated and set by the existing law after 1 December 2010, the difference must be paid within a month, meaning that the law to be passed will have a regressive force. As member of the civil initiative for the law On Subsidies for Temporary Disability Tatevik Davtyan informed NT after the debate, there is progress because one of their most important demands has been taken into consideration. However, according to Davtyan, a number of other proposals haven't been taken into consideration. "Let's hope that we will achieve other changes just like we achieved this change through civilized dialogue," said T. Davtyan. Gayane Melikian

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