Single-parent mothers eligible for paternity leave

Single-parent mothers eligible to paternity leave

Single-parent mothers eligible to paternity leave. Image: Twitter

Single-parent mothers eligible for paternity leave.

The 16th Social Court of Valencia has recognised a mother’s right to an additional eight weeks of paternity leave to care for her child in a single-parent family, awknowledging that the child’s “time of care that is guaranteed by law cannot be reduced” because “having only one parent cannot reduce the time of care that is guaranteed by law.”

In a case defended by the trade union CSIF, the court upholds part of the woman’s argument and holds the National Social Security Institute and the General Treasury of the Social Security to this declaration. After taking her maternity leave between October 3, 2020, and January 22, 2021, women demanded the additional 12 weeks that would correspond to the father as a single-parent household.

The Valencia Provincial Directorate of Social Security, on the other hand, declined to grant this leave, claiming that it is “an individual right that cannot be transferred to the other parent” as stated in the Workers’ Statute. The judge, on the other hand, partly agreed with the woman, stating that because the law stipulates that four weeks of paternal leave must be taken immediately after the birth and the remaining eight weeks after the birth, and because the mother had taken those four weeks immediately after giving birth, “that time cannot be regarded as a violation of the principle of equality.”

Therefore, they consider that they are only entitled to the remaining eight weeks of leave for the birth and care of the child, as this is the period which “neither the applicant nor the child have actually taken because they are a single parent, and this difference cannot be admissible under international and constitutional law”.

As reported by El Mundo

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Natasha Brewer

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