In the Parliament of Ukraine, under the registration number 10255, I registered a bill “On Amendments on the Labor Code of Ukraine” (regarding the prohibition employment of single mothers at night, overtime, working on weekends and sending them on a business trip).

One of the least protected categories of citizens is single mothers and children who they hold and educate on their own.

According to Article 18-1 of the Law of Ukraine “On State Assistance to Families with Children”, the right to help single mothers with children has:

single mothers (who are not married);

lonely adopters, if the birth certificate of the child or a document on the birth of a child issued by the competent authorities of a foreign state, provided that it is legalized in accordance with the procedure established by law (decision on adoption of the child), there is no record of the father (mother) or record of the father (mother) carried out in accordance with the established procedure by the state registration body of acts of civil status on the instructions of the mother (father, adopter) of the child;

The mother (father) of children in the event of the death of one of the parents who do not receive a survivor’s pension, social pension or state social assistance to the child of the deceased breadwinner.

As can be seen from this definition, the parent of a child may also belong to the category of single mothers who performs the same functions.

Often in the families of single mothers, there are two or even more children. And the burden of material provision and upbringing of these children is borne by their mothers. The state is obliged to provide maximum support to such families, especially in the context of a deep demographic crisis in Ukraine.

According to the Ministry of Social Policy in Ukraine, in 2003, 27 thousand single mothers were registered, at the end of 2011 – 576 thousand, and by the beginning of 2016 – more than 600 thousand.

According to the latest data from the Ministry of Social Policy, it is known that as of January 1, 2019, the number of single mothers (parents) from single recipients to single mothers was 287,354, which educates 411,761 children.

It can be partly agreed with the profile of the Ministry that some of these women really live with men, mostly parents of common children, but do not register a marriage to receive social assistance.

However, a significant number of single mothers actually holds and educates children themselves. And the state’s task is not to reduce the support of single mothers by motivating the fact that some women (along with their husbands) abuse these rights. Given that it is the state that provides the appropriate status to single mothers, then the state itself is responsible for this and should make it impossible to provide such status without justification.

On the contrary, the state should strengthen and broaden the protection of single mothers, who keep and educate their children without a husband, especially in the field of labor relations, since single mothers alone keep both themselves and their children.

The bill proposes to introduce a ban on the involvement of single mothers in night, overtime work, work on weekends and sending them on a business trip, introducing appropriate changes to Articles 55 and 176 of the Labor Code of Ukraine.

Adoption of the bill will improve at the legislative level the protection of single mothers, which will have a positive effect on their children, given that single mothers and children they hold and educate is one of the least protected categories of Ukrainian citizens.