News

On January 22 Social Platform’s Working Party on Employment met to discuss the urgent need to mobilise in favour of the maternity leave directive. The Irish Presidency has committed to try to facilitate a negotiation between the Council and the Parliament and warns that this might be the last Presidency working on it if Member States do not progress on the file.

The Council considers the Parliament proposal for 20 weeks full pay and fully paid two weeks of paternity leave ‘not an appropriate basis for negotiation’ – instead they want to go back to the Commission’s proposal of 18 weeks pay at ‘principle of full pay but can be sick leave level with a ceiling, no paternity leave and less protection’. The Parliament’s rapporteur Edite Estrela is willing to negotiate compromises but so far there has not been any official progress in the negotiations. Social Platform has long worked in support of the directive and is in-line with the Parliament’s initial proposal of 20 weeks full pay with protection against dismissal.

The European Women’s Lobby and ETUC recently sent a letter to the Council calling for full pay and protection against dismissal and EWL has also launched a campaign ‘Two years overdue! – that they encourage civil society organisations to sign up to. The EWL will also mobilise civil society organisations at the national level to contact their governments as well as request a meeting with Commissioner Viviane Reding asking for her active support.

Background

In March 2006, the European Council stressed the need for a better balance between work and private life in order to achieve economic growth, prosperity and competitiveness, and approved the European Pact for Gender Equality. In December 2007 and March 2008, the Council called on the Commission to evaluate the legal framework supporting reconciliation and the possible need for improvement in this area and reiterated that further efforts should be made to reconcile work with private and family life for both women and men. The Parliament has consistently called for improvements to the existing legislation. This is why the Commission decided to review Directive 92/85/EEC proposing measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health at work of pregnant workers and workers who recently given birth or are breastfeeding, in particular its Article 8 (Maternity leave), 10 (Prohibition of dismissal) and 11 (Employment rights).

See also related previous news on the topic