The Government proposes addendum and amendment to the Labor Code. The RA Deputy Minister of Justice Armenuhi Harutyunyan presented the new regulations for debate at the extraordinary sitting of the NA Standing Committee on Labor and Social Affairs and said that the aim is to clarify the sections regarding layoff. The Deputy Minister explained that according to the current code, it is possible to calculate the layoff until the judicial act enters into force. As a result, this process takes so long that the citizen often switches to another job, but is still considered unemployed.
With the proposed amendment, in all cases of the employee switching to a new job with another employer during the period of layoff, an amount equal to the last nine months’ salary paid for the previous job will be paid for the period of layoff. If the employee worked less than nine months, then an amount equal to the salary paid for that period will be given, as well as the positive difference between the salary received for the new job before and during the given period of layoff. According to Armenuhi Harutyunyan, in case of receiving a lower salary at the next workplace, there will be an opportunity to pay the positive difference.
The MPs inquired about the analysis of the cases of applying to the court for illegal work, the possibility of relieving the workload of the courts, ensuring labor rights and other issues of legislative regulation. The Committee Chair Heriknaz Tigranyan expressed her concern that expecting a higher compensation, the employee may hide the fact of finding a new job, which will promote the shadow. “But no matter how long the period of layoff is, it’s the same: at the time of issuing the judicial act, the decision is made according to the current legal regulations, according to which it cannot exceed the amount of 12 months. Therefore, to say that if the court dispute will last three years and get more, we have limitations here,” the Committee Chair mentioned. In this regard, she raised the issue of effective use of supervisory functions.
The draft law was approved by the Committee.
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National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia
