BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 24
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
The Government of Georgia is considering introduction of a mandatory unemployment insurance mechanism in the country, Trend reports via Georgian media.
The introduction is planned under the new Social Code, which has been officially announced two days ago.
The new Social Code includes mandatory medical insurance, social, unemployment, as well as accident and temporary disability benefits.
Deputy Minister of Health Tamar Barkalaia noted that the main goal of the Code is to provide adequate protection to the citizens, which includes social payments, health care needs, labor market policy, as well as unemployment insurance and reinsurance.
"Unemployment benefit means providing assistance to the unemployed citizens from the state budget for 6 months. This is different from the approach that has been proposed and it is not unemployment insurance which involves the payment of contributions by employees and employers, because at present we believe that employees cannot make additional contributions to the new fund, since they already have to make a contribution to the pension fund,” said Giorgi Chanturidze, an economic analyst at the Trade Union.
"We believe that the state and the budget should take over the payment of unemployment benefits, although this will not be a big pressure since the benefit period will be limited to 6 months and this will apply only to those who worked and remained unemployed and not to those, who have never worked in general,” said Chanturidze.
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