23 March 2019 - Montenegro’s new Draft Law on Health Insurance stipulates that pregnant women must work for at least two months at the same company if they want to exercise their right to the maternity leave. In this way, according to the head of the Health Insurance Fund of Montenegro, Sead Čirgić, there will be fewer cases of misusing this right.
Montenegro’s new Draft Law on Health Insurance stipulates that pregnant women must work for at least two months at the same company if they want to exercise their right to the maternity leave. In this way, according to the head of the Health Insurance Fund of Montenegro, Sead Čirgić, there will be fewer cases of misusing this right.Also, the Ministry of Health approved this proposal of the Health Insurance Fund, and it will be included in the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Health Insurance. New Draft Law will be discussed during the public hearing scheduled for 26 March.
As Čirgić clarified for Dnevne Novine daily, the main goal of this proposal is to prevent numerous violations of the maternity leave, as many ‘fictional companies’ were established just for these purposes.
“So far, there have been many cases of abuse of the right to go on maternity leave, because the law envisaged that an insured person of the Fund, before exercising the right for maternity leave, must have health insurance for two consecutive months or four months during one year. Now, by changing this segment, it is defined that the pregnant woman must work two months for the same employer, or four months with breaks during the year. This amendment will help reduce possible misuse. For example, a situation that so far happened most often was that a pregnant woman signed a contract with an employer and the day after she applied for maternity leave," explained Čirgić.
The President of HIFM also explained that the new Law determines the highest salary rate for pregnant women and that he does not expect anyone to have any objection in this context on the public hearing.
"The highest salary can amount up to two average net earnings for the previous year. So in that segment, there is a limited amount that can be refunded based on pregnancy," said Čirgić.
According to the Law on Health Insurance and Article 41, the Health Insurance Fund reimburses the employer the paid remuneration in the amount of 70 percent of the basis for compensation, and up to an amount that can not exceed one average salary of employees in Montenegro in the previous year.
The President of the Parents Association Kristina Mihailović is still skeptical about this proposal of the Fund because, as she remarks, the pregnant women are not sufficiently protected as it is. "If we had a Labor Law that protects pregnant women, there would be no problems in introducing this proposal of the Fund, but in a situation where pregnant women are already unprotected, and as before, on account of abuse, they decide to abolish certain rights completely or severely limit them, I am not sure that this is the right solution," Mihailović said.
