Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2014, published 104th ILC session (2015)

Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183) - Slovakia (Ratification: 2000)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report does not follow the report form but reproduces the provisions of the legislation without replying to the Committee’s previous direct request. It hopes that the Government will provide, in its next report, full information on the following questions:

Article 2(1) of the Convention. Scope. Please explain how maternity protection is provided, in particular, to women working under fixed-term employment contracts and in atypical forms of salaried work such as home work, telework, temporary work, etc.

Article 6(1). Conditions governing the right to cash benefits. The Committee notes that section 48(1) of the Act on Social Insurance provides that employed women who are pregnant or who take care of a new-born infant are entitled to maternity allowance. The Committee asks the Government whether a woman whose child has not survived or who has given birth to a live child but for some reason does not take care of her child, is also entitled to maternity allowance.

Article 6(3). Level of cash benefits. The Committee notes that section 53 of the Act on Social Insurance provides that the amount of the maternity allowance is 65 per cent of the basic daily assessment. The Committee would like the Government to explain to what extent this provision gives effect to Article 6(3) of the Convention, according to which the maternity benefit should be calculated on the basis of previous earnings and represent at least two-thirds of those earnings (66.6 per cent).

Article 6(5) and (6). Benefits paid where the qualifying conditions are not satisfied. The Committee notes that a woman worker, who fails to satisfy the conditions for the award of maternity allowance before childbirth, may be certified by an attending physician to be temporarily incapacitated for work and granted sickness allowance. The Government also states that there are no qualifying conditions to be met in order to be entitled to this allowance. Please indicate whether, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention, means-tested or other adequate cash benefits such as parental benefits, as the case may be, are also paid in the period after childbirth to women workers who do not meet the conditions to qualify for cash benefits.

Article 8(1). Burden of proof in case of termination of employment. The Committee requests the Government to identify the legal provisions ensuring that in the event of termination of an employment relationship with a pregnant woman, a woman on maternity leave or taking care of a child under 3 years of age, the burden of proving that the reasons for the dismissal are unrelated to pregnancy or child birth rests on the employer.

Article 9(1). Maternity-based discrimination. Please identify the sanctions applicable in case of discrimination based on maternity, as well as the number of violations recorded and penalties applied.