GREATER practical and financial help for parents is on the cards now that a new 'family law' has passed its second reading in the Council of Ministers, with extended maternity and paternity pay, protected time...
Paternity leave doubles overnight, but campaigners push for equal time off for mums and dads
03/01/2017
PATERNITY leave has now officially doubled throughout Spain from two weeks to four – a move many dads say is insufficient, but which has led to some firms extending even further.
One of these is the supermarket chain Consum, which has decided to offer six weeks' paternity leave instead of the four given by the government.
Until 2009, only mums were entitled to State-funded time off for the birth of a baby or adoption of a child, but since paternity leave was first granted in that year, an estimated quarter of a million fathers have taken advantage of it annually.
Some take theirs after the mothers' maternity leave ends to allow her to go back to work, or during maternity leave to ease the pressure on the new mum and spend quality time with their babies.
The law increasing paternity leave to four weeks was in fact passed on January 1, 2011, but has taken six years to come into effect.
Single fathers and all-male couples, however, say this is nowhere near enough because it leaves them at a disadvantage compared with male-female couples, where the woman's maternity leave is much longer and typically leads to her being able to take up to six months off work.
In the first nine months of 2016, the State paid €1.15 billion in maternity pay, of whom 206,037 beneficiaries were mums and 4,309 were dads who had the opportunity to take over some of the woman's maternity leave.
At the same time, €154 million was paid in paternity leave for 184,093 fathers.
A campaign group, the Association for Equal and Non-Transferable Birth and Adoption Leave (PPiiNA) says the four-week paternity period is not enough and is 'poorly designed', as fathers only get a quarter of mothers' four months of leave – an 'unacceptable inequality of rights', the group complains.
One of the spokeswomen, María Pazos, recalled that Parliament agreed in October to increase paternity leave to 16 weeks to equal that of the mothers.
The PPiiNA is backed by the Union of Family Associations (UNAF), which says shorter paternity leave means the bulk of childcare continues to fall to the mother, leading to her being 'penalised in the job market'.
UNAF wants the government to go one step further and provide 'parental leave', allowing the mother and father to take equal amounts of time off on separate occasions and an equal period in which they coincide to cover 'quality family time' and also to help share child-rearing and bread-winning.
“Work-family balance policies are a State issue which directly affect everyone's wellbeing – caring for the elderly, the sick or disabled, and children, as well as affecting the birth rate, employee productivity and the economy of the country,” UNAF stresses.
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PATERNITY leave has now officially doubled throughout Spain from two weeks to four – a move many dads say is insufficient, but which has led to some firms extending even further.
One of these is the supermarket chain Consum, which has decided to offer six weeks' paternity leave instead of the four given by the government.
Until 2009, only mums were entitled to State-funded time off for the birth of a baby or adoption of a child, but since paternity leave was first granted in that year, an estimated quarter of a million fathers have taken advantage of it annually.
Some take theirs after the mothers' maternity leave ends to allow her to go back to work, or during maternity leave to ease the pressure on the new mum and spend quality time with their babies.
The law increasing paternity leave to four weeks was in fact passed on January 1, 2011, but has taken six years to come into effect.
Single fathers and all-male couples, however, say this is nowhere near enough because it leaves them at a disadvantage compared with male-female couples, where the woman's maternity leave is much longer and typically leads to her being able to take up to six months off work.
In the first nine months of 2016, the State paid €1.15 billion in maternity pay, of whom 206,037 beneficiaries were mums and 4,309 were dads who had the opportunity to take over some of the woman's maternity leave.
At the same time, €154 million was paid in paternity leave for 184,093 fathers.
A campaign group, the Association for Equal and Non-Transferable Birth and Adoption Leave (PPiiNA) says the four-week paternity period is not enough and is 'poorly designed', as fathers only get a quarter of mothers' four months of leave – an 'unacceptable inequality of rights', the group complains.
One of the spokeswomen, María Pazos, recalled that Parliament agreed in October to increase paternity leave to 16 weeks to equal that of the mothers.
The PPiiNA is backed by the Union of Family Associations (UNAF), which says shorter paternity leave means the bulk of childcare continues to fall to the mother, leading to her being 'penalised in the job market'.
UNAF wants the government to go one step further and provide 'parental leave', allowing the mother and father to take equal amounts of time off on separate occasions and an equal period in which they coincide to cover 'quality family time' and also to help share child-rearing and bread-winning.
“Work-family balance policies are a State issue which directly affect everyone's wellbeing – caring for the elderly, the sick or disabled, and children, as well as affecting the birth rate, employee productivity and the economy of the country,” UNAF stresses.
Related Topics
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