Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) - Czechia (Ratification: 1993)

Part VIII (Maternity benefit) in relation to Article 69 of the Convention. The Committee notes from the Government’s ninth report on the application of the European Code of Social Security that the maternity benefit is provided for a period of 28 weeks but is not paid out:

• -to the mother of a child throughout the period, during which the mother has an agreement with the father of the child or the mother’s husband as to the fact that said individual will assume the care of the child and as such the insured individual, with whom the mother of the child has concluded said agreement, is entitled to receive the maternity benefit;
• -to an insured individual throughout the period, during which said individual is unable to or not permitted to care for the child due to a serious long-term illness, due to which said individual has entered into temporary incapacity for work and because of which the child has been taken into the care of a different physical entity or legal entity;
• -throughout the period, in which the insured individual does not take care of a newborn child and the child is therefore assigned to foster care or to institutional care;
• -to an insured individual throughout the period, in which the child was in institutional care for reasons other than medical grounds on the part of the child or the insured individual.

The Committee observes that in the social security law the above cases of the suspension of benefit are usually applied with respect to the childcare benefit granted to the insured person who actually cares for the child, and not to the maternity benefit, which is granted to the mother herself to maintain her income during the minimum period necessary for restoring or improving her health in connection with the pregnancy and confinement. As defined in Article 47 of the Convention, the maternity benefit is not conditional upon caring for the child. It should be paid out at least for the period of 12 weeks before and after confinement even if the child is stillborn or dies soon after birth, and is not transmissible to the father or any other carer. In the light of these explanations and taking into account that maternity benefit in the Czech Republic is provided for a much longer period, the Committee wishes the Government to assess the compatibility of the abovementioned provisions with the grounds for the suspension of the maternity benefit allowed by Article 69 of the Convention.

Part IX (Invalidity benefit), Article 54. The Committee notes the observation of the Czech–Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions (CMKOS) as well as the Government’s reply to it included in the report. The CMKOS emphasized in particular that the recent changes in the definition of invalidity were driven by an effort to reduce the number of beneficiaries in order to make savings at any cost. The Committee would like the Government to explain in its next report, by reference to the corresponding provisions of the legislation, what changes were made in the definition of invalidity and what reasons were advanced for introducing them into the national legislation. Please provide statistics comparing the number of new entrants into the invalidity scheme by category in the years before and after the change in the definition and assessment of the level of invalidity, as well as the total expenses encountered by the scheme on provision of invalidity benefits.