Green light for new birth and childcare permits
The Council of Ministers approves extending maternity leave for single-parent families to 32 weeks.
MadridThis Tuesday's Council of Ministers approved the extension of maternity and paternity leave, as well as childcare leave. "In this case, it's for a good cause," argued the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, at a press conference this Tuesday.
Pushing through this commitment was a demand from Sumar, which sees it as a reinforcement in the legislature at a time when the Spanish government, and the PSOE in particular, are suffering the consequences of the outbreak. News about the permits approved this Tuesday:
Changes to childcare leave
The adoption of two additional weeks of parental leave to care for children up to 8 years old has been approved. Therefore, the current 8-week leave will be reduced to 10 weeks. 8 years.
The two fully paid weeks can be taken retroactively from August 2, 2024. This means that all families whose child was born on or after that date will be eligible. Official State Gazette (BOE) but it must then be validated by the Congress of Deputies.
The eight-week leave The current provision for childcare for children up to 8 years old was included in the Spanish government's family law and is unpaid. The Spanish government pledged to pay at least four of these eight weeks to comply with the European directive on which the measure is based. In fact, this should have come into effect on August 1 of last year. For this reason, the two fully paid weeks can be taken retroactively from August 2, 2024.
The European Commission has already scolded the Spanish government for not properly implementing the EU directive on work-life balance, to the point that it has taken Spain, along with Belgium (CJEU). Failure to meet the set deadline has led Spain to a sanctioning process.
More weeks for single-parent families
Maternity and childcare leave for single-parent families has been extended from the current 16 weeks to 32 (paid by Social Security). Specifically, of these 32 weeks, 28 will be part of the maternity and childcare leave for the child's first year, while four additional weeks will be added, which can be taken until the child turns 8 and can be requested continuously or intermittently.
The government expects the measure to primarily affect women, who make up 80% of single-parent families. It will come into effect once published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and must then be ratified by Congress.
Maternity leave has been extended.
Finally, the birth and childcare leave is being extended from the current 16 weeks to 17 weeks until the child is 12 months old, or for the first year following a judicial or administrative ruling in the case of adoption or foster care. This is traditional maternity and paternity leave. Parents already enjoying maternity or paternity leave will not be eligible for the extension.
The measure falls short of what is included in the coalition government agreement: an extension of this entitlement to 20 weeks. This proposal had also been negotiated by the BNG (Nationalist Party) with the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party). The extension will also come into effect once it is published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and must then be ratified by Congress.
During the first half of the year, Social Security processed and paid out 224,275 birth and childcare leave applications. Of these, 118,206 were requested by men, and 106,069 by women.
