The draft proposes to create legal grounds for allocating 15% of the salary fund to the Public Defender’s Office from the state budget in order to pay for overtime work performed by the public defenders.
The draft law on Making Amendment and Addenda to the Law on Advocacy was debated in the first reading at the sitting of the Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs on October 23. It was moderated by the Deputy Chair of the Committee Rustam Bakoyan.
According to the RA Deputy Minister of Justice Levon Balyan, the necessity to adopt the draft is conditioned by two key factors: the increase in the workload of the Public Defender’s Office every year, as well as the fact that the new Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes have come into force.
The key rapporteur also noted that despite the recent increase in the number of public defenders, currently 69, the current number of the public defenders does not allow them not to engage in overtime work.
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According to the Deputy Minister’s information, the Public Defender’s Office faced a problem in which framework the public defenders, as on duty, participate in investigative and other judicial activities on non-working days and hours, including at night, perform overtime and night work, but are not additionally paid for this. Meanwhile, the right to additional remuneration for such cases is a guarantee established by the Labor Code. “The draft proposes to allocate the money only for overtime work. The proposal will not apply to the Head of the Office and the deputy heads,” Levon Balyan detailed.
It was noted that currently, one public defender handles 210 criminal cases on average. Taking into consideration the above-mentioned, the Deputy Minister asked to endorse the initiative.
The Secretary of the NA Civil Contract Faction Artur Hovhannisyan inquired whether the number of public defenders available at the moment and their additional work are sufficient to ensure the proper quality of criminal cases, or whether other regulations are needed to increase the number of public defenders. In response, the rapporteur assured that it is possible to ensure proper quality of criminal cases with the existing number of public defenders. According to the Deputy Minister, with the proposed amendment, the settlement of the issue becomes more complete.
“As a result of the amendments, how much will the surcharge be?” the MP Vladimir Vardanyan asked. “Currently, the public defender’s salary is 395 thousand AMD; a surcharge of 15% is designed, according to the rate of the occupied position,” Levon Balyan underscored.
The co-rapporteur, the Committee member Marina Ghazaryan, attaching importance to the draft, urged her colleagues to vote for it.
The MPs also spoke about the importance of adopting the initiative. “The draft is extremely important for further improvement of the Public Defender’s Office,” the MP Vladimir Vardanyan opined.
The legislative initiative was approved by the Committee.
National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia
