Maternity compensation payment no longer employer's obligation – Who does the new law benefit?

The new Law on Financial Support to Families with Children, which came into effect on July 1, has facilitated things for new mothers in Serbia by reducing the enormous amount of documentation previously needed to exercise the right to the compensation for new mothers, which consisted of as many as 86 documents. Also, the law has secured an important financial incentive for the third and the fourth child in the amount of RSD 1,440,000 and RSD 2,160,000, and under the new law, the compensations are no longer paid by the employee, but by the state.

However, the said changes have also initiated numerous questions and uncertainties when it comes to the position of new mothers in Serbia. Some of them are – which documents are needed now, where they are submitted and the most important thing, when new mothers can expect the compensations to be paid, as the new law puts the latter in the hands of the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy, whereas employers in Serbia will no longer be under this kind of obligation.

As the ministry explains for eKapija, the new procedure involves only a few papers.

– A pertinent form is filled out depending on which right is being exercised, whether it's maternity leave, maternity and childcare leave and childcare leave, and the forms can be downloaded from the website of the Ministry of Labor.

In addition to the filled out form, the report of temporary work disability during the maternity leave and the childcare leave, that is, the decision on the approved leave by the employer and a photocopy of the current account card must be submitted. Other data are taken from available registers – the ministry told us.

New mothers will now file the necessary documentation to the city-municipal administration, that is, the child welfare service in the place of residence, and all other information will be acquired by local self-governments through the Central Register of Mandatory Social Insurance, and they will also determine the base pay.

The ministry says that regular payments, without delay, would be secured by having the payments be made directly to the users' accounts in the net amount, whereas taxes and contributions will be paid to adequate accounts.

Compensations will thereby be paid in the period from the 20th to the 25th of the current month for the past month, and slightly fewer than 600 new mothers encompassed by the new law so far will get their compensations for July around August 20, the ministry says.

Base pay calculation

When it comes to the way the base pay for the calculation of the compensation amount is calculated, the new law also brings some changes. From now on, it will be determined based on the sum of monthly base pays on which contributions were paid in the 18 months prior to the leave. The period used to be 12 months, and before that – 6.

So far, only employed mothers have stood to get maternity allowances. The new law expands the categories to include self-employed women, owners of agricultural properties and those under work engagement, as well as unemployed women who realized income in the period of 18 months before the birth of the child.

They are joined by women employed after the birth of the child, and the length of the maternity leave is then calculated from the date of the child's birth.

Another new feature is that the state no longer takes care of administrative payments and credits that employers used to deduct from maternity allowances until July 1. New mothers now need to settle these obligations themselves each month, at banks or through employers.

Another controversial new feature is that the compensation can now amount to up to three average monthly salaries (instead of five, as has been the case so far), which has provoked a negative public reaction.

When asked why this change is implemented now and to what end, the ministry answers:

– This law has expanded the range of beneficiaries and introduced new categories of beneficiaries exercising the rights to other compensations on the basis of child birth and child care and special child care and determined a new way of calculation and payment and a new compensation maximum.

As the NALED says in its press release, the data of the Tax Administration concerning the payers of annual income tax, paid by persons with total earnings higher that the triple amount of the average annual earnings, show that only 10%, or around 2,300 tax returns in 2017 were made by women, which suggests that setting aside funds for new mothers whose earnings exceed the triple and the quintuple salary amount would be a negligible burden to the budget.

Sandra Petrovic

Ministarstvo za rad, zapošljavanje, boračka i socijalna pitanja Republike Srbije

Poreska uprava Srbije

NALED

maternity allowances

payment of maternity allowances

maternity compensations

base for compensation calculation

Law on Financial Support to Families with Children

incentives for the third child

incentives for the fourth child

necessary documentation for new mothers