The new Family Law brings important novelties in the field of labour law, as it establishes three new types of paid leave aimed at facilitating the reconciliation of family and work.
The three work permits provided for in the Families Act
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The three work permits provided for in the Families Act
Until now, the Workers’ Statute only allowed two days of absence per year for very serious causes such as death, a complicated illness or an accident of relatives up to the second degree (grandparents, grandchildren or siblings).
The text created by the Ministry of Social Rights together with the departments of Finance and Justice transposes the European directive on work-life balance and provides for the following work permits:
Five paid days
The new law establishes that any worker may be absent from work for up to five days a year to care for a family member up to the second degree or for a cohabitant, whether related or not. This leave is paid and has the following conditions:
- The worker must give prior notice.
- The worker must justify the reasons for the leave, which include: serious accident or illness, hospitalisation or surgery without hospitalisation requiring home rest.
- The sick person’s relationship with the worker may be:
- Spouse
- Domestic partnership
- Relative up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity
- Any other person other than the above who lives with the worker in the same household and requires his or her care.
Four paid days
In this case, it is a leave of up to four paid days per year for reasons of force majeure which the worker may take “when necessary for urgent and unforeseeable family reasons, in the event of illness or accident, which make his immediate presence indispensable”.
The reason for the absence from work must be provided to the employer by the employee. This absence from work is intended, for example, to deal with the typical situation of a child who has to be picked up from school because he or she is ill. It can therefore be taken partially by the hour, as long as the sum does not exceed four working days.
In total, in addition to the five days’ paid leave seen above, the new law allows workers to take up to nine paid days off per year to care for children, partners, relatives or cohabitants.
Eight weeks parental leave
Finally, the regulation provides for parental leave of eight weeks per year until the child reaches the age of 8. This leave may be taken continuously or discontinuously, but for full weeks. As in the previous case, here the leave may also be part-time or full-time.
Unlike the previous ones, this is an unpaid leave designed, for example, to reconcile school holidays or during the period of progressive incorporation of the child into the nursery. The employee must specify the start and end date of the leave 15 days in advance to the company. In this case, it is an individual right of the parents, adoptive or foster parents, and cannot be transferred to the other parent.
The implementation of this leave will be gradual. If the law eventually comes into force in 2023, workers will be able to take six weeks of parental leave this year. In 2024, the full eight weeks of parental leave per year will be in place.
When will the new work-life balance leave come into force?
When will the new work-life balance leave come into force?
These three new discharges will not come into force until the Family Law passes through its final parliamentary procedure and is published in the Official State Gazette, something that may still be delayed for months.