The Constitutional Court has interpreted the rule on deducting the time spent caring for a minor child from the calculation of the length of service in employment

The Constitutional Court reviewed, on the basis of a citizen's appeal, the constitutionality of Article 208, paragraph 1 (8) of the Social Code, according to which only a non-working mother's time spent caring for young children is counted in the calculation of the length of service for the purpose of awarding retirement pensions.

Reason for inspection:
In the citizen's opinion, this provision of the Code contradicts the principle of the equality of rights of both parents in the care and upbringing of children. After two months from the birth of his son, the citizen resigned from work in order to provide him with daily treatment and rehabilitation procedures on the basis of a medical report, as well as the temporary inability of the child's mother to provide such care for health reasons. Subsequently, the time spent caring for his infant son was not counted against his length of service for pension benefits. The court dismissed the claim with reference to the said provision of the Social Code.

Conclusions of the Constitutional Court:
Having studied all the materials and legislation, the Constitutional Court indicated that under the Constitution marriage and the family, maternity, paternity and childhood are protected by the State. Citizens of Kazakhstan are guaranteed a minimum wage and pension and social security in the event of age, illness, disability, loss of breadwinner and other lawful grounds.
The care of a young child requires special care and protection on the part of the parents. During this period of the child's life, due to objective circumstances, either of them may be restricted in exercising their right to work in connection with the actual care of their child.
Such circumstances arising from the fulfilment of parental responsibilities must be considered in the development of compensatory mechanisms within the framework of State policy in the area of social protection, one of which is equality and the inadmissibility of restrictions on human and civil rights in the area of social protection.

As a result of the inspection:
The Constitutional Court found Article 208, paragraph 1, subparagraph (8) of the Code to be in conformity with the Constitution in the following interpretation: a non-working parent is credited with the time spent directly caring for minor children when calculating the length of service for the purpose of awarding retirement benefits.

The full text of the CC normative ruling is available at the following link
https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/ksrk/documents/details/795361?lang=ru