THE ALLOWANCE FOR IDLE TIME

Abstract

Following the identification of an emergency situation, a downtime allowance was introduced in the Republic of Latvia to compensate for the restrictions imposed on employers and the self-employed. Payment of the allowance is intended only for those employees and self-employed persons who have paid social insurance contributions in previous periods, thus small producers, craftsmen, small farms were left without social support, although their activities were severely restricted or banned altogether. It cannot be argued that the payment of the downtime allowance was linked to the payment of the allowance to dependent children, so that in future the allowance for children in emergency situations is not linked to any other type of support. The analysis of the conditions of downtime allowance shows that the criteria for receiving the allowance are very variable, which interferes employers from orienting themselves to the proposed solutions and applying them in a timely manner, moreover, excessive changes are not related to one of the basic principles of good legislation.