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SDKU: Social Protection in Slovakia Has Worsened Under Fico
Tuesday 02 March 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, March 2 (TASR) - The overall level of social protection and support in Slovakia was reduced under the current Smer-SD-led Government even before the economic crisis hit, SDKU-DS election leader Iveta Radicova said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The former labour minister claimed that the value of pensions compared to the average salary has gone down by 43.3 percent. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate has risen, with the most high-risk group being school-leavers and university graduates. "Families with schoolchildren have recorded a serious increase in poverty, which represented 37.7 percent in 2000-08," she said.
Radicova also claimed that the changes in the Labour Code that originally promised to do away with forced trading licences [as opposed to direct employment, mainly concerning workers in construction - ed. note] have accomplished quite the opposite to the desired effect - an increase in licence use from 12.6 percent to 13.8 percent.
"We want to focus on supporting young families, for example through delays in mortgage payments during maternity leave," said Radicova.
SDKU also wants to make corrections to the private second pension pillar, as Government measures have deprived savers of opportunities to increase the value of their savings. "We'll continue with the fundaments of the social state created before 2006. The measures that were received by the public positively will be corrected in order to avoid injustice, and we'll propose new measures focused on unemployment," said Radicova.
Party vice-chair Ivan Miklos, also present at the press conference, claimed that Robert Fico's Government isn't building a strong social state. "The expenditures of the Labour Ministry were at 2.9 percent of GDP in 2006, and they fell to 2.56 percent of GDP in 2008. Expenditures on poverty went down after inflation is taken into consideration by 14.6 percent between 2006-10, and compensation for the disabled fell by 1.26 percent," said Miklos.
Miklos noted that regional disparities increased even before the economic crisis erupted. "In the three poorest regions - Banska Bystrica, Kosice and Presov - the scissors have opened further. While the average salary reached 84.7 percent of the Slovak average in 2006, it was only 83.7 percent in 2008," he said, adding that the number of unemployed people rose in those regions between 2006-08.
The opposition lawmaker conceded that unemployment has risen partly in the wake of the crisis. "However, the Cabinet ... says that the increase in unemployment is the same as the average in the EU. But the reality is that the unemployment rate rose by 2 percent in the EU, while it has gone up by 4.3 percent in Slovakia," said Miklos.
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