Update to the contribution to the progress report on the process of accession of the republic of macedonia to the european union

3.19SOCIAL POLICY AND EMPLOYMENT

Labour Law

The amendments to the Law on Labour Relations were adopted (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No.06/2008), aiming at increasing the flexibility of the labour market, by facilitating the administrative procedures for hiring of workers, electronic registration of new employments and cease of employment contracts. With these amendments the recommendation of the European Commission for removal of the upper limit for the sanctions in cases of discrimination was implemented.

The implementation of the TWINNING Project “Review of the National Labour Legislation” commenced in June 2008. The project provides support and expert assistance in strengthening the national capacities for revising the national legislation and transposition of the relevant EU directives in this field. The members of the Project Steering Committee were nominated, with participation of representatives from relevant institutions such as the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice and Secretariat for European Affairs, as well as the representatives of the trade unions and employer’s organisations registered at national level. Within the project’s activities, three thematic working groups were established: 1.Working conditions, information and consultation of workers; 2.Equal treatment and antidiscrimination and 3.Health and safety at work.
In the course of August and September the first set of workshops has started for the working group’s members, with the aim of improving capacity on issues linked with the EU labour legislation and transposition of relevant EU directives in this field.
MLSP, in cooperation with the USAID Project on Business Environment and the ILO organised a seminar on Elimination of Child Labour. The aim of this seminar was to introduce the international labour standards in relation to child labour to the civil servants, social partners and civil society representatives, as well as the ILO Program on Child Labour Elimination and the activities against the trafficking in human beings.
Health and Safety at Work

The State Labour Inspectorate conducted 2,325 regular supervisions on the occupational health and safety legislation enforcement, in the period June-August. 978 decisions for removing identified shortages in the working process and 14 decisions for prohibition of work were issued. 103 on the spot inspections for work related injuries were carried out in this period. The SLI submitted 58 requests for initiating misdemeanour procedure and 2 for criminal charges.

Social Dialog

Delegation from the Republic of Macedonia, headed by the Minister for Labour and Social Policy, participated on the General Assembly of the International Association of Economic and Social Councils and Similar Institutions held in Rome and became a member of this Association. The membership in this association will contribute to the further improvement and development of the functioning of the Economic and Social Council and the social dialogue in general.

In July a meeting was held with the participation of the representatives from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and all trade unions and employer’s organizations registered at national level, where social partners were more closely familiarized with the Government’s plans and proposals to introduce new clearly defined criteria for representativeness of the social partners. At this meeting social partners were asked to take full participation in this issue by providing their relevant comments and suggestion on the provided draft legislative provisions. Some comments were provided and will be additionally discussed in the process of defining final legislative provisions.
In July a session of the Economic and Social Council was held, during which the ESC members were discussing the Government plans to introduce reforms in the social insurance system, such as the introduction of the system of gross wage, decrease of the social insurance contributions rates, integration and harmonization of the social contribution bases, calculation and contributions collection, as well as the gradual lowering of the minimum bases for calculation of the social insurance contributions.
Employment policy and ESF

In June, IPA Units within the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy have prepared the first Annual Report for Implementation of the Multi-Annual Operational Programme “Human Resources Development 2007-2013” that was sent to the European Commission for comments and the Draft Annual Work Plan for Human Resource Development Component. In line with the Annual Work Plan in September, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy has been considering all the possible activities for financing from the commitments under the Priority axis Technical assistance of the Operational Program. The output of this exercise will be a basis for negotiation of the draft twinning fiche prepared by the Delegation of EC in Skopje, which would aim at strengthening of the capacities of the Operating structure for Human Resource Development Component.

The staff of the IPA Units within the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy have participated in the workshops organised by Ministry of Finance and CARDS project “Capacity Building in Support to the Decentralisation of Management of Assistance in the Republic of Macedonia” for preparation for the upcoming External audit for compliance assessment with EC requirements for establishing decentralised implementation system for IPA assistance of the European Union. The purpose of this audit mission is drawing up an independent audit opinion, as a precondition for accreditation of the IPA operational structure by the National Authorising Officer.
In this regard Ministry of Labour and Social Policy as a part of the Operational Structure has adopted the First version of Manual of Procedures for SPO and IPA Coordinator for IPA TAIB (I) and HRD (IV) components. The Manual describes the systems and procedures to be followed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy officials and bodies entrusted with tasks for programming, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of assistance under IPA Regulation. Moreover, the First version of Programme Implementation Guidelines for Line Ministries/Beneficiary Institutions with a purpose of ensuring qualitative and effective management of the pre-accession assistance was developed by CFCD within the Ministry of Finance.
The Secretariat for European Affairs has also presented Final Programming Guidelines for component IV, prepared in consultation with IPA Units in MLSP.
All necessary documents (Operational Agreements, Manuals and Guidelines, Act on Systematization of Posts, Decisions on assignment, Workload analysis etc.) for compliance assessment of the Units for IPA together with a detailed checklist where submitted to CFCD and the External auditors.

 

In August initial interview with external auditors was held where SPO and IPA Coordinator and IPA staff have presented the management and control systems set up for IPA in the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy following the accreditation criteria according to the Commission Regulation No. 718.

In line with Art 9 of the Operational Agreement for delegation of tasks to the IPA coordinator Ministry of Labour and Social Policy prepared data necessary for ensuring national co-financing requirements for the year 2009.

 

Ministry of Labour and Social Policy drafted a Call for nomination, including criteria for selection of representatives of NGO and social partners who will act as voting members of the Sectoral Monitoring Committee for IPA component 4. MSLP presented the criteria to the representatives of NGO and the social partners and ask them to select two candidates each, through open and transparent procedure. It is expected NGOs candidates to be selected by mid October 2008.

Social Inclusion

The new Law on Disabled Persons’ Organisations was adopted (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No.89/2008). It regulates the status, the area of activities, financing and the issues of ownership of the disabled persons’ organizations, established to appropriately represent the disabled persons.

Amendments to the Law on Employment of Disabled Persons were also adopted (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No.88/2008), in respect to the conditions for establishment and registration of the “protective enterprises”, with the aim to provide conditions to improve the employment of disabled persons and their inclusion in to the open economy.
In the period June/August, within the preparatory activities for participation in the OMC, the respective draft final reports regarding situation of vulnerable groups (children, Roma issues, elderly people, minority issues, gender, health and disabled persons) were prepared. The content of these reports is based on the information and discussions from the regional conferences held previously, analytical overview of existing secondary data, analysis of the existing regulatory framework on certain issue, problems and priorities defined for each vulnerable group.

Subsequently, the Thematic Working Meetings have been organised in the course of September, with participation of relevant civil society organisations and state institutions with the aim to review the findings contained in draft final reports for each vulnerable group. The draft version of the Final Compiled Report titled "On the path to EU: Contribution of the Civil Society in the Creation of the Social Inclusion Policy in the Republic of Macedonia" have been prepared. The Final Version of this Report will be completed at the beginning of October, thus it will be published on three languages (Macedonian, English and Albanian). The National Conference for promotion of the Report is scheduled for 14^th of October in Skopje.

With the support of UNDP, a Project has started with the aim of strengthening the capacities for and creating the broad dialogue in the process of development of social policies and measures focussed on fight against the poverty and social exclusion, with broad participation of vulnerable social groups. The implementation of this project will involve, besides the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, all relevant governmental institutions and bodies, as well as the academic institutions, social partners, NGO sector and other stakeholders.
Social Protection

An intersectoral working group for drafting the Unique Protocol for Acting in Case of Domestic Violence, which will define detailed procedures for acting of various relevant subjects and entities in cases of domestic violence, was established. This working group is consisted of representatives from different institutions and entities such as the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Interior and representatives from the civil society.

The Law amending the Law on Family was adopted (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No.84/2008). Its aim is to improve the protection of the family from violence and to provide possibility for active participation of the civil society. New chapter IV Guardianship over juveniles-victims of trafficking in human beings was added. With these amendments the child - victim of trafficking in human beings became legally protected category.
Within the implementation of the adopted Strategy on Demographic Development, the amendments to the Law on Social Protection (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia No. 98/2008) were adopted. With these amendments the right to a new financial benefit was introduced for the mother that gave birth to the forth child. This is the measure aimed at improving the social-economic situation and decreasing the social risk of the multi-children families.
In this direction, the amendments to the Law on Child Protection (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia No. 98/2008) were also adopted. With these amendments additional benefits were introduced with the intention to support and promote demographic development. Single payment/benefit for the newborn is introduced with the amount of 30% of the average salary in the country that will be paid to the parents for their first, second and third newborn child. A new parental benefit is also introduced for the second, third and forth child for the parents living in municipalities with low natural growth rates (below 2.1). This benefit differs in the amount and in the duration of receiving, depending of the fact if it is being received for the second, third or forth child.
In June, the new Reception Centre for asylum seekers was opened in Skopje (vill. Vizbegovo). The current number of persons accommodated in the new centre is 13. With the aim of obtaining the necessary theoretical and practical experience of the newly employed staff of the Centre, they are currently under the one-month educational training program within the Centres for Social Work.
Antidiscrimination and Equal Opportunities

Within the activities of the Sector for Equal Opportunities in the MLSP, 46 teachers from 46 primary schools in 13 municipalities were trained during the two-day seminars on the subject of “Gender sensitive education”. The training was aimed at providing the teachers with the knowledge and skills to detect and to prevent the stereotypes and prejudges in the syllabi and curricula concerning the gender equality.

Training on Gender Budgeting was held for the gender equality coordinators from the local self governments, NGO representatives, representatives of the budget sectors within the Ministries, and for the staff of the Sector for Equal Opportunities within the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.
According to the plans, the established working group consisted of relevant state institutions, social partners and civil society representatives, have prepared the initial draft version of the Law on Antidiscrimination. With the aim to ensure transparency and wider participation in the preparation of the Law, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy has organised two public debates with the representatives of the local institutions and relevant NGOs in Bitola and Tetovo, where the draft-Law was presented and the participants were asked to provide their comments, suggestions and recommendations in the process of preparation of the Law. By the end of October, four additional debates will also be organised.
The draft version of the Law was submitted for review and comments to the ODIHR and to the Venice Commission in Strasbourg, as well as to the EC Delegation in Macedonia.
The amendments to the Law on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men were adopted (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia No. 117/2008) . Its main aim is to harmonise the definitions on direct and indirect discrimination within the Law, with the Directive 2002/73/ЕС.