On 23 March 2010 the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus took a decision “On equal guarantees of the citizens’ right to unemployment protection” (Valentina V. Podgrusha was a reporting judge).

In accordance with article 23 of the Law “On Employment of the Population of the Republic of Belarus” the unemployed, who have terminated employment relations of their own free will, as agreed by parties, or whose employment agreement has been terminated due to a number of grounds provided in article 42, 44 and 47 of the Labour Code, shall be paid lower educational maintenance allowance as related to the standard one, in the instances of their training, retraining, advanced training. Article 24 of that Law also admits the opportunity for the above persons to be refused unemployment benefits.

The Constitutional Court recognised that the abovementioned legislative provisions had been predetermined by the actual action of the employee. The legislator does not take into consideration that the ground for termination of an employment agreement may rely on circumstances that make difficult work continuation (sickness, for example). The dismissal may occur due to the violation by an employer of labour legislation, employment agreement (part four of article 40 of the LC), as well as due to the change of business property owner (point 11 of article 47 of the LC).

In the Constitutional Court’s opinion, the provisions, stipulated by the Law, as regards the list of the grounds for termination of an employment agreement that affect the size of educational maintenance allowance or the opportunity to be granted unemployment benefits, are inconsistent and unfair. Those provisions do not provide for the garantees of the citizens’ right to unemployment protection.