It should be noted that earlier the Ombudsman gave an explanation on the provision of supplementary paid leave to working citizens with children, however, due to the increasing number of citizens’ appeals on the issue of granting this leave to a single mother (father), we additionally explain the meaning of the concept of “single mother (father)“, and also indicate the documents confirming this status.
On the basis of Article 86 of the Constitution of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Donetsk People’s Republic of 02 June 2014 No. 9-1 “On the application of laws on the territory of the DPR during the transition period” (with amendments and additions), the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Ukraine “On the practice of consideration of labour disputes by courts” No. 9 dated 06.11.1992 (hereinafter – the Resolution) in the part that does not contradict the Constitution of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Thus, according to Clause 9 of the above Resolution, a single mother should be considered a woman who is not married and there is no entry about a child’s father in a child’s birth certificate or the entry about the father was made in the prescribed manner according to the mother; a widow; an another woman who brings up and supports the child herself.
Please note that a single father is a man who has a child (children), whose mother has died, gone missing, has been deprived of parental rights, has been in a medical institution for a long time, left children to her father during divorce, or is in custody.
Thus, if a woman is not married and there is no entry of a child’s father in a child’s birth certificate, then she provides an employer with an appropriate certificate from a civil registration authority.
A widow (widower), in addition to an application for additional paid leave, must provide the employer with a death certificate of a spouse.
Difficulties often arise with granting this type of leave to a divorced woman (man), since a child has a father (mother) and in many cases communicates with him/her and takes part in his/her upbringing.
The current legislation does not contain a specific list of documents required for presentation to the employer by a mother (father) who is divorced and is raising (raising) a child without a father (mother) in order to receive additional social leave.
Thus, in order to confirm the right to the said leave, a single parent must present to an employer any formally drawn up, executed and certified document in accordance with the established procedure, in which the absence of participation of the second parent in the upbringing of a child is confirmed with sufficient reliability.
One of such documents, for example, may be a court decision to deprive the defendant of parental rights; a court order or an investigator’s order to search for a defendant in a claim for the recovery of alimony; a court decision on recognizing a husband (wife) as missing (absent); a certificate from a school (kindergarten) that a parent does not take part in the upbringing of a child (does not communicate with teachers, does not take a child home, does not take part in parent meetings), etc.
Based on the foregoing, in order to receive supplementary paid leave, a divorced woman (divorced man), in addition to an application for the said leave, copies of the child’s birth certificate and the divorce certificate, must provide the employer with one of the above or any other document confirming the absence of the father’s (mother’s) participation in raising a child.
