Ana Rodrigo |
Madrid (EFE) the children are 8 years old.
On the National Day of Reconciliation and Co-responsibility, social entities that care for families and children have urged the Government to advance in the processing of the norm -whose draft was approved by the Council of Ministers in December- so that it can enter into force this legislature. They also demand that the conciliation measures be remunerated.
Despite the urgent processing, the deadlines are increasingly tight to achieve this objective, since it still must go through the Council of Ministers again, which could be next Tuesday, before starting the parliamentary process.
Eight weeks to care for children up to 8 years of age without pay
The rule includes new paid leave for the care of relatives or cohabitants and assimilates single-parent families with two children to large ones.
Also, it extends the parenting income of one hundred euros per month per child under 3 years of age that only working mothers charged to those who are unemployed or who have contributed for at least one month, a measure that has already been in place since January.
The new law includes a paid leave of five days a year to care for a relative up to the second degree or a cohabitant and the right to be absent for urgent family reasons -in cases of illness or accident- up to 4 paid days.
It incorporates a new eight-week leave for fathers and mothers, which can be enjoyed continuously or discontinuously until the minor turns eight, although it does not specify that it will be paid, as initially proposed by the department of Belarra.
The family law, which transposes the 2019 European reconciliation directive and modifies the Workers’ Statute, recognizes the different types of households in Spain and creates a register of common-law couples who will be able to access the different permits.
More ambition, social entities request
“We are the only country that has 16 weeks for both parents, but we must improve in flexibility of schedules or paid leave and there is no universal financial support for parenting; almost all European countries have universal child-rearing benefits and no specific measures or tax deductions”, explains Ricardo Ibarra, director of the Children’s Platform, to Efe.
The platform, which brings together more than 70 entities, asks the Government to go “beyond the minimum commitments established in the European conciliation directive” that transposes the law.
“We are concerned that the directive is not being adequately transposed in some aspects such as the remuneration of parental leave,” alleges Ibarra, who points out that “in the explanatory memorandum there is talk of paid, but in the articles it is not specified, and that generates doubts in the interpretation that can be made”.
In addition, the NGOs want the universality of the provision of support for upbringing to be guaranteed so that it reaches people in a situation of inactivity and that it is maintained at least until the child reaches the age of six, with the commitment to reach up to 18 years in the medium or long term.
Negotiations and reports
The draft bill reached the Council of Ministers after months of negotiations between the ministries of Finance and Social Rights, which was forced to lower its initial aspirations and is now studying the reports approved by advisory bodies, such as the Council of State and the Economic and social Council.
This last body, which has already published its analysis, values the advances in terms of conciliation and the recognition of the diversity of family models, although it believes that the transposition of the directive should have been addressed within the framework of the dialogue between the Government and the interlocutors social.
Like the children’s platform, it considers that the law must specify “the remuneration or financial benefit” that the new parental leave entails and argues that the worker’s right to benefit “can be the way to guarantee the adequate exercise of that right” and avoid penalizing the participation of women at work.
On Reconciliation Day, the Union of Family Associations (UNAF) highlights the progress that has been made in equalizing 16-week paternity and maternity leave, non-transferable and 100% paid.
“A measure that has been very well received by parents, in view of the latest Social Security data: of the 473,720 benefits for birth and child care in 2022, 224,359 have corresponded to the first parent, usually the mother, and 249,361, to the second parent, normally the father”, he details.