Occupational social security schemes (Chapter 2 of Directive 2006/54)

• Author: Koldinská, Kristina
• Pages: 40-42

40

6 Occupational social security schemes (Chapter 2 of Directiv e 2006/54)

6.1 General (legal) context

6.1.1 Surveys and reports on the practical difficulties linked to occupational and/or

statutory social security issues

As there is currently no system of occupational social s ecurity, there are no surv eys on

this issue.

6.1.2 Other issues related to gender equality and social security

Maternity benefit is a sickness insurance benefit taken largely by women. If a second

child is born right after (or during) parental lea ve, the benefit is calculated on the basis

of a theoretical wage, which is usually not favourable to th e mother. The second

maternity benefit is therefore usually lower than the first.

In addition, conditions for taking the parental l eave are to some extent problematic. As

described earlier, parental allowance, paid from state social sup port, is paid monthly and

parents can (under certain conditions) decide the monthly level of the allowance. The

total amount for each child is CZK 220 000 (approx. EUR 8 800). If children are born

quickly one after the other, the total amount of CZK 220 000 always applies to the

youngest child in the family, so that in such a case, part of the total amount for the

previous child gets lost, as the previous parental allowance ends as soon as a new one is

claimed.

6.1.3 Political and societal debate and pending legislative p roposals

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs is working on pension reform and the

Commission for Equal and F air Pensions has b een established for this purpos e.

Narrowing the pension gender gap has been declared among the most important

objectives.

Difficulties in taking parental allowance when multiple children are born i n quick

succession should be tackled soon and, indeed, a proposal for amending the existing

rules is currently pending.

6.2 Direct and indirect discrimination

The system of occupational pensi ons, or to put it better, th e system of pension savings

was established on 1 January 2013 by Act No. 426/2011 Coll., on pension savings. This

Act established a new pension scheme . However, the scheme included almost no aspects

of occupational pensions, even though it was declared to b e a ‘second-pillar’ system. It

was a voluntary system, which could be joined by opting out of th e first pillar with a 3 %

obligatory contribution and at least another 2 % from individual savin gs. The system was

administered by private subjects, called pension companies. However, the Government

proposed to abolish the scheme and Parliament adopted an Act implementing this, Act

No. 376/ 2015 Coll., on termination of pension savings, effective from 1 January 2016.

By this d ate, all the funds acquired under the previous Act were transferred to the third

pillar ‘individual savings’. Participants in the system were granted the right to transfer

the contributions from which they opted out before back to the first- pillar system.

The only example of occupational social security schemes can be found in Act No.

427/2011 Coll. on sup plementary pension savings. The employer, for example, might

contribute to the supplementary pension savings of their employees.