At its eighth meeting, the Committee on Health, Labour and Social Welfare of the Parliament of Montenegro considered six items of the agenda – Information on problems of the workers in the Black Coal Mine in Berane, Proposal for the Law on prevention of illegal business operations, Proposal for the Law on Strike, letter of the Catholic Spiritual Centre “Sanctae Crucis” Sukuruć, letter of the NGO 4 Life, letter of the Red Cross of Montenegro and approval of minutes from the seventh meeting.

At the meeting, the Committee on Health, Labour and Social Welfare of the Parliament of Montenegro considered the Information on problems of the workers in the Black Coal Mine in Berane.

The Committee concluded that the health conditions of the workers of the Black Coal Mine in Berane are very difficult and that their lives are threatened.

The Committee requested urgent Information from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare on measures and activities undertaken in order to overcome the difficult situation in which the workers of the Black Coal Mine in Berane are found. 

Pursuant to the Article 137 paragraph 4 of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of Montenegro, the Committee on Health, Labour and Social Welfare of the Parliament of Montenegro submitted to the Committee on Economy, Finance and Budget, as the umbrella committee, the Opinion on Proposal for the Law on Prevention of Illegal Business Operations, from the eighth meeting held on 17^th June 2013.

At the meeting held on 17^th June 2013, the Committee considered Proposal for the Law on Prevention of Illegal Business Operations, pursuant to the Article 137 paragraph 2 of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of Montenegro.

The Committee supported the Proposal for the Law by a majority of votes and proposed to the Committee on Economy, Finance and Budget, as the umbrella committee, to propose to the Parliament of Montenegro to adopt the Proposal for the Law on Prevention of Illegal Business Operations.

The Committee on Health, Labour and Social Welfare of the Parliament of Montenegro proposed to the umbrella committee to support two amendments to the proposal for this Law, submitted by the following MPs: Mr Zoran Jelić, Mr Zoran Vukčević, Ms Žana Filipović and Ms Branka Tanasijević, containing the following correction: In the Amendment I in the paragraph 1, words: “by the body for state affairs”, shall be replaced by words: “by the state authority body”, and the rest as follows.   

Pursuant to the Article 137 paragraph 4 of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of Montenegro, the Committee on Health, Labour and Social Welfare of the Parliament of Montenegro submitted to the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms, as the umbrella committee, the following Opinion on Proposal for the Law on Strike, from the eighth meeting held on 17^th June 2013.

Pursuant to the Article 137 paragraph 2 of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of Montenegro, the Committee considered the Proposal for the Law on Strike, at the meeting held on 17^th June 2013. The Committee on Health, Labour and Social Welfare of the Parliament of Montenegro proposed to the umbrella committee to accept the amendment of the MP Zoran Jelić to the Article 8 of the Proposal for the Law, as well as corrections of legally-technical character.

Amendment: Heading title of the Article 8 is amended as follows: “Usage of gender sensitive language”.

Amendments of legally-technical character:

- After Roman numerals marking the Chapters, full-stops should be placed (from I to V);

- Word “Everyone” from the Article 8 is deleted;

- In the Article 10 item 1), word “hour” (čas) shall be replaced by the word “hour” (sat);

- In the Article 11 in the heading title the word “obor” shall be replaced with the word “committee” (odbor);

- In the Article 18 paragraph 2, word “hour” (časa) shall be replaced with the word “hour” (sata);

- In the Article 19 item 1, word “food” (hrane) shall be replaced with the word “food” (hrana);

- In the Article 21 paragraph 2, word “establishes” (utvrdjuje) shall be replaced with the word “establishes” (utvrđuje);

- In the Article 24 paragraph 3, word “hour” (časa) shall be replaced with the word “hour” (sata);

- In the Article 26 paragraph 1, word “hour” (časa) shall be replaced with the word “hour” (sata);

- In the Article 26 paragraph 2, word “hours” (časova) shall be replaced with the word “hour” (sati);

- In the Article 35, 36, and 37, word “€” shall be replaced with the word “euros”.

Additionally, proposal for this law is harmonised with the provisions of SAA for harmonisation of the legislation, Chapter VIII, Cooperation Policies, Article 101, Cooperation in the field of social policy (Saradnja u oblasti društvene politike), and not Cooperation in the field of social policy (Saradnja u oblasti socijalne politike), as cited in Declaration on harmonisation.

The Committee supported the Proposal for the Law by a majority of votes and proposed to the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms, as the umbrella committee, to propose to the Parliament of Montenegro to adopt the Proposal for the Law on Strike.

The Committee on Health, Labour and Social Welfare of the Parliament of Montenegro received an invitation to visit the Catholic Spiritual Centre “Sanctae Crucis” Sukuruć. It was decided at the meeting that in the following days the Chairperson of the Committee, members of the Committee, as well as the professional service of the Committee on Health, Labour and Social Welfare should visit the Centre.

The Committee on Health, Labour and Social Welfare received an invitation from the NGO 4 Life, which in cooperation with the Secretariat for Social Care of the capital city and Office for Prevention of drug abuse, Podgorica, organises month of combating drug abuse. It was also decided at the meeting that the Committee members, chairperson of the Committee and professional service of the Committee shall participate in this action.

The meeting of the Committee was attended by Ms Ivana Mihajlović, representative of the Union of Free Trade Unions, Mr Aleksandar Mitrović, representative of Chamber of Commerce of Montenegro, and Ms Rumica Kostić, representative of the Union of Employers of Montenegro.