The bill on unqualified seasonal work filed to Parliament for adoption contains provisions that violate the rights to work and insurance, said experts of the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption (CAPC), who presented the bill appraisal in a news conference at IPN.
The bill was drafted by the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family and the announced goal is to regulate the activity of day workers and to diminish informal labor. The activity of a day worker must be minimum a day and must not exceed 90 days a year for one beneficiary. The bill provides that the beneficiary must keep a record of the work done by day workers and must monthly transmit electronic information concerning the number of employees. The beneficiary is obliged to pay tax on the income earned with the help of the day worker. The day worker has the right to sign a social and health insurance contract with the National Health Insurance Company and the National House of Social Insurance.
Expert Stela Pavlov said this bill cannot be adopted conceptually because it violates the rights to work and insurance. “We do not see the necessity of derogation from the Labor Code. This bill encourages illegal labor. The bill contains ambiguous formulations that can lead to abusive interpretations. Under the bill, the activities can be performed only in certain areas. Some of them concern seasonal work that is regulated by the Labor Code,” stated the expert.
Stela Pavlov noted the bill provides that the remuneration of the day worker must not exceed the average salary per economy. “It’s not clear why this clause is contained as the sides have the right to set the size of remuneration themselves. The argumentation of the necessity of drafting this bill is not sufficient and it’s not clear what the finality is. The informative note contains neither the table of concordance with the EU legislation nor the economic-financial substantiation. This bill deviates from the national standards,” she said.
The CAPC reached the conclusion that if the law is adopted, it will have a negative impact on the persons who signed contracts for a particular period. The employers could class them as day workers and they will not have the right to health or social insurance. CAPC head Galina Bostan added that the day workers usually do not read the laws and are not aware of the legislative changes. Thus, they will not go to get insurance themselves and will face penalties. Also, the bill does not stipulate who is responsible for the work accidents involving day workers.
According to the experts, the bill will lead to the diminution of day workers’ remuneration as the income tax will be deducted from their salary. The bill authors didn’t think up a mechanism to make sure that the day workers receive the same remuneration for the work done until now. “I understand that the government wants to put taxes, but the taxation mechanism should have been planned better,” stated Galina Bostan.
The bill was appraised within the project “Harmonization of the legislation with the international standards on human rights”, which is supported financially by the Civil Rights Defenders of Sweden.
