The theme of “Aravot” online “Face to Face” talk show is discussed by Anahit Galstyan, Head of Pension Department at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, and lawyer, also advocate Suzanna Akritova.
Aram Abrahamyan – I am a proprietor and I hire you, you work for a few months, then you go to maternity leave, in the meantime, I pay you a fantastic salary by the standards of “Aravot”, let’s say, 5 million drams, of which you rollback half of it to me, then you go to “maternity leave”, and the state based on this 5 million drams salary, gives you a fantastic allowance. Is it possible or not?
Suzanna Akritova – It is not possible, it would only be possible by the years of 2010. But in 2010, when the law on temporary incapacity undergoes the first amendments, it shall not only regulate the allowance for pregnancy and maternity, prenatal and postnatal ad-hoc vacation, it shall also regulate all cases of temporary incapacity, when the employer’s employee for some reasons gets sick and receive appropriate incapacity allowance. The model that you discussed, it is not possible in view of this law, because in 2010, when there were similar cases, the law was amended, and a provision was introduced to the appropriate Article of the Law (Articles 22 and 23), which reads that there exists a procedure for calculation of temporary incapacity allowance. For calculating, first we need to look at what income tax given employer has paid for given employee, in other words, we are talking about the income tax payment by given employer, which is necessary to be for 12 months. For 12 months, if you pay 5 million -5 million every month, at that time we would talk about 5 million allowance, but if you pay 5 million for 2 months, but a 12-month income tax has not been paid, then for calculating the average wage, the minimum wage is taken as a base in compliance with the law, for the given case, in our country the minimum monthly salary is calculated 50,000 drams. In other words, what our government says that violations have occurred, it is not so true.
A. A. – Now, Suzanna says that such a thing is not possible, that is, I cannot do such a thing. Can I or I cannot?
Anahit Galstyan – I will explain and present my position, I just want to ask a question. Don’t you see a problem here?
S. A. – No, I do not see, I see only a matter of control.
A. G. – The second question. It means that you do not see the problem set by the government that the state expenditure is not earmarked.
S. A – I said that it is necessary to have a 12-month work experience, and in that case, the taxes are already paid by the size of the salary.
A. G. – If I hire the employee to pay 100 thousand drams salary, I am the employer, no one limits my right to hire a pregnant woman, my right includes also the award as much as I consider appropriate, being an employer, from my benefit, in other words, I am not limited to any right. I hired, paid 100 thousand drams salary, gave 1 million dollar award, I paid 24.4 per cent income tax from 100 thousand drams, I calculated from the million and gave as much as the income tax is calculated by the legislation, and so on. Now, this person will work for 3 months or so, by the arithmetic calculations, if it is 3 months, 3 times 100 thousand plus 1 million, it amounts to 1 million 300 thousand, we divide the million into 12 months, and the reward is by the size of 1/12th, when we divide 1 million 300 thousand into 12 month, we get 100 thousand per month. In other words, if this person decides 12 months later, she is going with 100 thousand drams equal, in this case of we sent her to maternity leave in 2 months, 2 times hundred thousand – 200 thousand plus about 1 million, i.e. 1 million 200 thousand, divided by 12, we will have 100 thousand, multiplied by about 4.6, we will have 460 thousand. I give this amount to her and say that the income tax is withdrawn as appropriate, in this case, with a bit different rates, and give the remaining amount of money and say, goodbye. Let’s consider the case when 1 million award is not given, the person works for 2 months, it comes 200 thousand, divided by 12, definitely it will amount to less than 66 thousand, whereas the law says that we cannot pay lower of the minimum wage, 66 thousand times 4.6 amount to about 300 thousand and a little, we deduct the tax from this amount and pay the rest. Now, I showed with specific numbers that if a person is hired to be paid 100 thousand drams, works for 2 months and takes a maternity leave, a temporary incapacity leave, for which she is calculated and paid an allowance as defined by the law, the difference in one case is 460 thousand, and in another case – 300 thousand. I cannot tell that everyone does this, and I cannot tell that no one does this.
The discussion in full
Prepared by ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
“Face to Face” talk show series are released by the Open Society Foundations- Armenia. The views and analyzes found in this broadcast express the opinions of the participants, and are not approved by the Open Society Foundations-Armenia, or its Board. This broadcast is made available thanks to comprehensive financial support by the Open Society Foundations-Armenia, under the mass media support program, grant No 18624.
