Additional social leave for single mothers: the practice of applying and improving legislation

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the procedure for providing additional social leave to single mothers. The legislation of Ukraine, judicial practice on the provision of additional social leave are analyzed. Applied mainly hermeneutic research method. It is concluded that the absence of a legislative settlement, the concept of “single mother” and a clear list of documents confirming this fact, especially in the case when the mother brings up a child without a father (divorced woman) leads to the ambiguous application of Art. 19 of the Law of Ukraine “On Vacations” in practice. In order to support motherhood and childhood and the effective exercise of the right to additional social leave, it is necessary to improve the legislation of Ukraine in this area. On the feasibility of improving the legal regulation of the status of “single mother” and fixing the list of documents confirming the status of “single mother” to provide additional social leave. When granting additional social leave to single mother (divorced woman), the employer is entitled to require, in addition to the application for granting this leave, copies of the birth certificate and the marriage dissolution, a document (s) confirming with sufficient certainty the absence of the father in the upbringing of the child, : certificate of registration of residence or residence; an act drawn up by a social and community commission established by a primary trade union organization or by any other commission formed at an enterprise, institution, organization. In controversial matters – the court’s decision on deprivation of parental rights; about establishing the fact of “single mother”; a court order or an investigator’s decision to search his father in a claim for alimony. A woman who has remarried but has not adopted a new husband from her first marriage has to produce a document confirming that the child’s father is not taking part in her upbringing, and a certificate from the civil registration authority, that the baby was not adopted by the new husband. If a widow or divorced child raising a child without a father (in the event of his or her parental rights being deprived), has remarried to another man and has not been adopted by his or her child from the first marriage, she is entitled to an additional social leave as a single mother. A woman who has children from a person with whom she has not been and who is not married, but with whom she co-operates, cohabitates and raises children, does not have the right to receive additional social leave as a single mother. The legislative level does not provide for the periodicity with which an employee must re-submit documents (renew them) to confirm the right to additional social leave. However, the Ministry of Social Policy regarding documents to confirm the right to such leave on the basis of “single mother” indicates: the employer has the right to request the renewal of these documents once a year. Key words: single mother, additional social leave.