The Government and United We can have signed an agreement to equate paternity leave with maternity leave, as promised by the president, Pedro Sánchez, last Sunday and proposed the purple party to Congress a few months ago.
The project includes a calendar to implement the measure progressively: In 2019, parents will enjoy a paid leave of eight weeks, 12 in 2020 and 16 weeks in 2021, the same that the mother now enjoys.
The agreement between Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias will allow the Government to count on the votes of Unidos Podemos for the processing of the General State Budgets of 2019.
And one of the points of the agreement is the approval of equal, non-transferable and 100% paid maternity and paternity leave.
This is an advance for work and family reconciliation that will be implemented progressively to meet the costs of this increase in paternity benefits: 300 million euros the first year and up to 1,200 million, the third year .
Thus, parents of babies born in 2018 will enjoy eight paid weeks; 12 weeks, those who have a child from 2020 and 16, if the child is born in 2021, year marked to fully equate the permissions of the father and mother.
This measure of equality for men and women, so demanded by society, is behind the announcement of the Basque Country government to equate the benefits of both parents in autumn next year.
In Babies and more, parents in the Basque Country will have a 16-week paternity leave from autumn 2019Until now, the proposed extension that the Government sent to the unions affects only public employees, and differs somewhat in dates with private working parents: nine weeks in 2019, thirteen weeks in 2020 and 16 weeks in 2021.
Permits cannot be simultaneous
After the birth of a child, the mother now has 16 weeks of paid leave: the first six compulsory and the next 10 voluntary and transferable to the father.
Although in practice these weeks are almost always assumed by mothers: in 98 percent of cases, according to Social Security data.
Paternity leave, extended to five weeks recently, It is voluntary and non-transferable.
In Babies and more The five-week extension of the paternity leave is approvedThe new agreement signed by the Government establishes that in no case can paternity leave be enjoyed simultaneously with maternity leave, except in those first fixed weeks, since it would go against the promotion of co-responsibility between parents, which is what is intended. In this way it is achieved that the child can be in the care of his parents, first with one and then with another, more time and both will be involved equally in their upbringing.
A very important step forward, no doubt. But we still cannot launch rockets, because this agreement is that, a point within the Budgets, which have to be approved every year for the measure to be carried out. At the moment they are only one point in the draft that the Government has promised to send to Brussels before October 15. There is a long way to go.
And while, for when the extension of the maternity leave until at least the baby turns six months?
In Babies and more According to the AEPap, maternity leave should be extended to at least six monthsPhotos | iStock
