Parents of children with disabilities asked to replace additional non-working days with money

More than 20,000 people supported a petition proposing to pay for unused days off to care for a child with a disability. Now parents raising children with disabilities are entitled to four additional paid days off per month. The authors of the petition point out that not everyone can take advantage of the weekend, including for fear of becoming “uncomfortable employees.” The lawyer notes that the monetization of such benefits hardly meets the requirements of the law. The Ministry of Labor adheres to the same point of view.

Russian legislation provides for the provision of four additional paid days off per month to one of the parents to care for a disabled child. Effective from September 1, 2023 amendments allow you to combine them and use up to 24 days off in a row during the calendar year. However, points out activist and tutor, aunt of a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) Christina Antares, many parents of children with disabilities cannot take advantage of extra days off: “The reasons vary, but often they come down to the inability to replace a person in the workplace.”

Cristina Antares launched a petition on the change.org platform demanding financial compensation for parents in case they did not use the due benefits.

“If, in exceptional cases, we compensate (pay for) an additional day off with money, then parents will be able to hire a nanny or a nurse for that day. Also, the money for this day off will be additional help to working parents of children with disabilities,” says Ms. Antares. In her opinion, only adults working under an employment contract could receive compensation from the Social Fund of Russia. Within a week, the petition was supported by more than 22,000 people.

Christina Antares explains that the problem is long overdue, but the parents themselves are reluctant to talk about it. Many people think that their employer pays for the day off, she says, and if an employee starts asking for compensation, they will simply be fired. The mother of a child with a disability from Tula, Alevtina (she asked not to give her last name), told Kommersant that her husband had never taken his due days off for ten years, since “work does not allow”: “He is a driver, he can be put on a flight. It is easier for the director to find an employee with a healthy child instead of him than to allow him to walk for an additional 24 days. He is just afraid to take this day off – he thinks that in this way he will become an “uncomfortable employee.”

Families in which children with disabilities are brought up mostly do not live well, in a situation where “every penny counts,” and the appearance of a petition is understandable, says Elena Klochko, chairman of the board of the All-Russian Organization for Disabled Children (VORDI). But she considers rather rare cases when parents do not use the due days off: “These days off are absolutely necessary. When you are a working parent and you go with your child to rehabilitation or spa treatment, and this is 21 days, it is quite obvious that you cannot do without them. I know for sure with what great joy the community met the innovation, which made it possible to combine such weekends into a single period of up to 24 days,” says Elena Klochko. In her opinion, parents should not be afraid to take the required days off.

Associate Professor of the Department of Entrepreneurial and Corporate Law at Kutafin University (MSAL), member of the commission for interaction with the business community and legal protection of business of the Russian Bar Association, mother of a child with a disability, Natalia Kantor, considers the parents’ initiative understandable, but doubts that it can be supported by the regulator: ” Additional days off are paid from the state budget, based on the average salary of the parent. If a parent needs to be with a child who needs additional care, care and attention, seek advice from a doctor, receive a medical service, then the state pays for these days so that the parent does not lose income. Refusal to grant such days is illegal. When parents say that they cannot take a day off because there is no one to replace them, they are talking about the virtual disregard of their rights by the employer. It turns out that in such a situation, the state is invited to compensate for the illegal actions of the employer. Another situation is the non-use of days off by the decision of the employee himself. Is the state obliged to compensate non-use of days off in both cases in monetary form? It’s very debatable.”

According to Natalia Kantor, the state allows to “monetize” some social support measures – for example, travel by transport or treatment in a sanatorium. But some measures will in principle be deprived of their original meaning if they are converted into monetary form.

“The task of protecting the interests of such families should be addressed, firstly, targeted, and secondly, through the payment of decent pensions, financial assistance, regional benefits, compensation payments to forcedly unemployed (especially single) parents. Moreover, from September 1, it will be allowed to use up to 24 days off to care for a disabled child at the expense of previously unused days in this calendar year. Such an emphasis on the “natural form” of social support in this case is quite justified,” the lawyer believes.

The Ministry of Labor confirmed to Kommersant that additional days off for parents raising children with disabilities are “a support measure introduced to give parents the opportunity to take care of children on any working day.” “The state of health of children with disabilities often requires more frequent visits to a doctor, examinations, rehabilitation, spa treatment, and more. Additional days off give parents the opportunity to accompany the child, to help him. Unnecessary days can be accumulated and used, for example, for a trip to a sanatorium. But unlike annual leave, it is impossible to receive monetary compensation for unclaimed days, ”the department explained.

Natalya Kostarnova