03.06.2022

FROM JULY 1, SICK LEAVE FOR PARENTS DUE TO QUARANTINE OF STUDENTS

Parents of students under the age of 12 should be entitled to leave when their child, his class or the school is quarantined. This is proposed to be regulated by amendments to the Health Act, the Social Security Code and the Labor Code by deputies from the four parties in the ruling coalition.

Currently, leave due to temporary incapacity for work can be used only by parents whose child has been" returned from a childcare facility due to quarantine in the facility or to the child". However, schools are not children's institutions and so mothers and fathers of students do not have this right.

"Therefore, in quarantine at school or in the relevant class, a healthy child returns home from school, but parents of children under 12 in these cases are not entitled to leave due to temporary incapacity for work due to a legislative gap in the Health Act, which is respectively transferred to the Labor Code and the Social Security Code", write the initiators of the bill.

However, this means that a child under the age of 12 is left without supervision and care, and this is a violation of the Child Protection Act, which is punishable by a fine of BGN 1,000 to BGN 5,000.

Therefore, the deputies now propose in the HA and SSC to provide that temporary incapacity is "care for a healthy child under 12 years of age, returned from a kindergarten or school, due to quarantine of the institution or school, or a separate group or class in him or due to the quarantine of the child." And in order to regulate the right to leave, the relevant changes are made in the Labor Code and the Social Security Code.

The changes are expected to take effect on July 1, 2022, so that funds can be provided for the upcoming budget update.