Filenews 26 October 2022 - by Adamos Adamou
The General Secretary of the Ministry of Labour, Andreas Zachariadis, appeared yesterday clearer in relation to the ongoing effort to expand the benefits of the CTA to self-employed persons, in the context of an examination, by the Parliamentary Labor Committee, of the harmonizing bills on paid parental leave. He said that at this stage the self-employed will not be covered by the bills, noting that in the context of balancing the benefits of the CTA between employees and self-employed this is expected to happen in the near future and that a bill is being prepared in this direction.
He said that the bill, based on the commitment we made with the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), should be ready by the second half of 2023. He revealed that under the bill, the self-employed will be given the opportunity to access both paid parental leave and unemployment benefit, which they are currently not entitled to, while there will also be arrangements for the provision of sickness benefit, as there are currently differences in its payment between employees and independents. In the bill, he said, there will also be relevant safeguards, noting that the Ministry of Labor is already working on the relevant legislation, which, as we are informed, was indirectly but clearly requested by the EU, with recommendations for eliminating discrimination between CTA policyholders.
Mr. Zachariadis also referred to improvements that are expected to be incorporated in the bills on paid parental leave for employees, which are expected to be voted on no later than December 1, which is the last session of the Parliament before its closure in view of the Presidential Elections.
Among other things, it confirmed the satisfaction of the request for parents who did not marry or civil partnership to be entitled to parental leave and the related allowance, with proof of recognition of the child by the father, while improvements will also be made to parental leave for those with children with disabilities.
