PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE NETWORK FOR PROTECTION AGAINST DISCRIMINATION:: HOW TO ACHIEVE GREATER PROTECTION OF THE SELF-EMPLOYED PREGNANT WOMEN AND THE PREGNANT WIVES AND LIFE PARTNERS OF THE SELF-EMPLOYED PEOPLE – The challenges for alignment of the Directive 2010/41/EU in the field of social protection and allowances during maternity in the Republic of North Macedonia.
Organized by the Network for protection against Discrimination, a roundtable event took place on the 8th of February dedicated to the Challenges for alignement of the Directive 2010/41/EU in the field of social protection and allowances during materinty in the Republic of Macedonia. The challenges for alignment of the Directive 2010/41/EU in the field of social protection and allowances during maternity in the Republic of North Macedonia.
The still present traditional patriarchal role the woman has in the family community contributes to her having lesser activity on the labour market, limited possibilities when it comes to employment and promotion, limited social benefits, dependence on the husband or life partner, and often losing the job due to motherhood. This position the woman has on the labour market furthermore reflects also on her position among different forms and models of employment as well as effectuating the rights emanating from them.
Due to the significance of self-employment and transpositioning of the EU legislative in the domestic context, the Network for protection against discrimination prepared a Public Policy Document named ‘How to achieve greater protection of the self-employed pregnant women and pregnant wives and life partners of the self-employed people: The challeges for alignement of the Directive 2010/41/EU in the field of social protection and allowances during maternity in the Republic of North Macedonia’, by the author Jovana Jovanovska Kanurkova. [Coalition MARGINS | How to achieve greater protection of the self-employed pregnant women and pregnant wives and life partners of the self-employed people (coalition.org.mk))])
This document was the main focus at the roundtable event which took place on February 8th, 2022. Female and male representatives of civil society organziations, as well as representatives from relevant ministries and institutions participated in this event which was organized within the framework of the project ‘Network for protection against discrimination: Joint action for promoting the equality and social justice of the marginalized communities’ funded by the Foundation Open Society - Macedonia.
On behalf of the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia, the Program Director led the way regarding rule of law and good governance – Danche Danilovska Bajdevska, who pointed out that in the past several years the Foundation has been working on networking the organizations on the basis of thematic issues, with a joint initiative on altering the legislative whose goal is the women who are individual female farmers to be able to obtain paid pregnancy leave, which will correct the injustice towards tens of thousands women of reproductive age, and who are registered female workers in the field of agriculture. The Program Director of the FOSM added that the greatest priority of the foundation in future will be protection and life improvement of the marginalized citizens. Under exceptionally uncertain and risky conditions our society has been facing, as well as the public health situation amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the necessity of protecting the most vulnerable communities was enormous. In that context, FOSM donated 1 million dollars – an amount which not only helped the socially-threatened citizens, but also enabled enhancement of the capacities both among the associations and the think-tank organizations in contributing to the development of civil society during crisis and their direct impact on policy creation.
A clear interpretation of the situation in our country was given by Marina Toshevska from the organization LAG Agro Leader who emphasized maternity as a fundamental human right the women farmers have. Their fieldwork research, which reached out to 400 families from rural areas, have shown that they face numerous challenges and do not have any benefits such as those present in the other work sectors. ‘Due to economic pressure and the lack of secure income, greater number of the women working in agriculture cannot afford to significantly reduce the scope of work before and after giving birth, thus they continue the work activities even in the late pregnancy or they start working too soon after they give birth which exposes both them and their children to significant health risks, such as premature birth, unintended abortion, etc. These women face many challenges and they are put in exceptionally difficult financial position while being absent during pregnancy, giving birth or maternity, which also influences their health, and the health of their children’, stated Tosheska.
Natasha Petkovska and Tona Kareva from the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, emphasizing that gender-based discrimination is strongly expressed in employment relations, and that this is also stated by the fact that during the pandemic the gender gap has increased for 22,7%, have elaborated the Directive’s objective aiming to protection of ‘the helping female spouses’ through enabling their social security on the same basis as other workers. With this Directive, for the first time, mothernity allowance for self-employed female workers has been allocated at a European Union level. At the same time, the Directive enables the member states to adopt measures for positive operation aimed towards providing complete equality between men and women during their working life. Three main drawbacks of domestic right have been detected when it comes to transpositioning of the Directive 2010/41/EU: lack of defining and adequate regulating of self-employment; absence of recognizing life partnership in social protection; and non fulfilment of standrads provided by the Directive and regarding the mothernity allowance.
Targeted recommendations were also presented, which are intended for the Ministry of labour and social policy, Ministry of health and the Health insurance fund. In the course of alignment with the Directive, alterations in the Employment Law are necessary which will recognize the self-employed in the Employment Law, as well as the recommendation for establishing and effectuating an inclusive legal framework providing the right to maternity leave and the right to monetary allowance for absence of work due to pregnancy, giving birth and motherhood and for the female holders of health insurance – owners of a family-owned farm. The Ministry of labour and social policy should make an effort on adequate alteration in the Self-employment Law and insurance in the case of unemployment, and of great significance is passing a specific law on regulating civil partnership as a form of partnership which will recognize life partners under the same conditions as marriage partners who have signed the civil marriage according to Family Law when it comes to obtaining the rights. In order to provide social protection of all women affected, a series of alterations is necessary in the Health Insurance Law.
The female representatives of the Ministry of labour and social policy saluted this initiative and pointed out to the following steps in the field where initially an operating group will be formalized. This group will be interdisciplinary and multisectoral and it will adequately address the challenges regarding the scope of the problems.
Within this event, during the discussion, the female representatives of the Rural coalition, the National Federation of farmers, and other civil socity organziations also took part. They agreed with the female representatives of the Ministry of labour and social policy that these issues must be highly prioritized.
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