The Ministry of Labor and Welfare has elaborated the draft law that would limit the unemployment status registration term

Draft law brought before the parliament limits the unemployment status registration term has political and economic reasons, believes the leader of the Free Trade Union of Belarus Hienadz Bykau.

According to Radio Liberty, Ministry of Labor and Welfare has worked out a draft law that would officially limit the unemployment status registration term to no more than three years. The officials explain this by the need to harmonize the Belarusian law with the Russian law that has this provision. Independent analysts call the proposals by the Ministry of Labor an attempt to artificially reduce the problem of unemployment.

While the Ministry of Labor believes that many people who are registered as unemployed with the employment agency conscientiously do not want to work. The head of the ministerial department Mikalai Kokhanau says that there are people who have been registered as unemployed for up to nine people. He says that today 74 thousand people are registered as unemployed, and the number of available jobs is 45 thousand.

The unemployed do not agree that they deliberately shirk work, because jobs offered rarely match the people's expectations in terms of the required qualification, job satisfaction and earnings.

According to the effective law, the maximum term of unemployment benefits lasts 24 months during three years. The average payment is 37 thousand rubles (approximately 17 US dollars). So the proposals to limit the unemployment status term have political and economic reasons behind them. Hienadz Bykau, leader of the Free Trade Union of Belarus, says: "What officials want to do is first, that this tiny amounts are not paid to the people. Second, we have the commander-in-chief who issues all directives. Obviously, there is a directive to eliminate unemployment in the country. In fact, many people simply do not register as unemployed. They live by what they grow, by part-time jobs and manage to get by. I think that the actual number of unemployed people in Belarus is much higher than official statistics claims".

According to the information provided in the Ministry of Labor and Welfare, the draft law that would limit the unemployment status registration term has been brought before the Chamber of Representatives.