KS Government amendments to law lead to savings: Maternity benefits to be tied to minimum, not average salary in FBiH!

(Patria) - The Sarajevo Canton Government has established amendments to the Law on Social Protection, Protection of Civilian War Victims and Protection of Families with Children. With these amendments, maternity benefits in Sarajevo Canton are reduced and the calculation is tied to the lowest salary in the Federation of BiH, which from January 2025 amounts to 1,000 KM. In the law still in force, the calculation was tied to the paid average salary in the Federation of FBiH, which in January was over 1,400 KM.

The amendments to the law have yet to be presented before the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton, where a majority for these amendments is questionable. We recall, the Sarajevo Canton Government, composed of the parties of the troika (People and Justice, SDP BiH, Our Party), has for two years cited maternity benefits as one of its most successful projects.

However, this amendment comes at a time when federal laws have also changed to prevent a large increase in social benefits and disability allowances, which would burden the FBiH Budget. The same principle has now been applied by the Sarajevo Canton Government, which reduces the amount of maternity benefits due to savings. Due to the reduction in the coefficient, the Government will have a deficit of 50 million KM in this year's budget.

With the proposed amendments, Article 148 now reads:

A woman – mother in an employment relationship, during her absence from work due to pregnancy, childbirth and childcare, may exercise the right to compensation instead of salary (salary compensation) and the right to additional assistance for the care and nurturing of the child in accordance with this law.

A woman – mother in an employment relationship who, in accordance with this law, exercises the rights from paragraph 1 of this article may be paid, from the funds of the Sarajevo Canton Budget, a total monetary amount in the amount of the lowest established net salary of employees in the Federation of BiH, multiplied by the appropriate coefficient.

The Sarajevo Canton Government will determine the amount of the coefficient from paragraph 2 of this article by its decision each year. After the Sarajevo Canton Government adopts the decision, the minister will, in an instruction, determine the amount of the total amount for the current year, as well as the amounts of rights exercised in accordance with this law by a woman – mother in an employment relationship and an unemployed maternity beneficiary in the Sarajevo Canton.

Article 149 is also changed and now reads:

A woman – mother in an employment relationship who, at least 12 months before going on maternity leave, has a concluded employment contract or a decision on establishing an employment relationship and registration for compulsory insurance based on the employment relationship, in accordance with the conditions prescribed by this law, receives salary compensation in the amount of 60 percent of the lowest federal salary.

A woman – mother in an employment relationship who, less than 12 months before going on maternity leave, has a concluded employment contract or a decision on establishing an employment relationship and registration for compulsory insurance based on the employment relationship, in accordance with the conditions prescribed by this law, receives salary compensation in the amount of 30 percent of the lowest federal salary.

A woman – mother in an employment relationship whose employer pays salary compensation based on maternity leave cannot receive salary compensation in accordance with this law.

The amendment refers to the fact that instead of the average, the lowest salary is now used

For comparison, the current law uses the average salary in FBiH for the calculation. However, the Sarajevo Canton Government realized that this would lead to an increase in benefits, and there is no money in the Sarajevo Canton budget.

The current law according to which the payment of benefits is tied to the average salary