Government to help young mothers with children

Prime Minister Robert Fico and Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Minister Ján Richter on Friday unveiled the first measure of the ministry's second social package - kids' corners. The measure is designed to bolster job creation for women who look after children up to the age of six. "We'd like to create conditions to enable women to go to work, be it a part-time or full-time job. This is currently being hampered by the fact that we lack a sufficient number of high-quality services that we could provide to mothers of children of such an age," said Fico. The kids' corners are supposed to be introduced at companies, with professional staff looking after children while their parents are working. The state will provide subsidies to businesses that opt to create jobs for working mothers. Opposition MP Miroslav Beblavý said that there are several drawbacks to the measure. "Experience from abroad shows that such kids' corners are only a complementary measure in which only a very limited number of companies are interested," he said. The Government is also planning to refund the companies the expenditures that they incur in creating the job as such. "We're saying to employers that if they create a position and hire a woman who looks after a child of up to six years of age, we'll cover 90 percent of the national average salary for ten months. This is based on the job being permanent," said Fico.