Minister Reçica: We are taking concrete steps to advance the rights of workers

Pristina, on 14 January, 2019
The Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Mr. Skender Rećica, reported today at the meeting of the National Council for Economic Development of Kosovo (ECAC) where he said that MLSW addressed the action on the legal initiative towards the Law on Labor Reform, as defined in the MEEC meetings agency.
“With the beginning of the implementation of the Government’s Work Plan for 2018, we have drafted the Draft Concept Document for regulating the field from the employment relationship on the basis of which we addressed issues of labor relations, focusing also on the provisions of maternity leave, working hours, work contracts, collective bargaining and many other issues, “the minister said.
Mr. Reçica said that from this Concept Document has emerged the new draft Law on Labor, already approved in the Government and the Draft Law on Maternity and Parental Leave which was sent to the Government for approval. He said both of these draft laws are contemporary and have transposed several European Union directives and have received the best practices of EU countries.
Speaking about the Draft Law on Maternity and Parenthood, the Minister said that taking into account the socio-economic and demographic circumstances of the country, for the first time in this draft law are treated also unemployed maternity, which under this law will benefit in the term from 6 months a monthly allowance in the specific value of the minimum wage in the country.
“We consider that the measures taken with the bill of maternity and parental leave such as the reduction of the length of maternity leave paid by the employer, the adjustment of working hours, the flexibility of working hours due to breastfeeding are measures that protect and advance the employment rate of young women in the labor market, “the minister said.
He said that the idea of creating a special Draft Law on lehonat is because in the future employers will be fully relieved of the responsibility of maternity leave compensation, based on pension reform, where the social security system will be installed, based on the standards of ILO.