The Government gives green light this Tuesday to changes in permits by birth and care of children through a royal-law that modifies several laws and allows us to accelerate the entry into force of these new rights.
The Executive has opted for this faster procedure, in Extremis in the last Council of Ministers of the season, to avoid paying the fine that Brussels has imposed for the breach of a European directive precisely on part of these permits that should already be adapted to the Spanish system. The modifications enter into force once they are published in the Official State Gazette, although they must be endorsed by a majority in Congress.
These are the novelties that are broken down into the small print of the Royal Decree, signed by five ministries, which is approved today by the Council of Ministers after months of negotiations between PSOE and add:
How can I distribute the new weeks of permission?
The new decree includes 19 weeks of permission in total. They include births, which are extended in a week until 17, and the two paid for the care of children until the age of eight. The law contemplates them as a whole that can be taken followed or in parts, but always subject to a series of norms marked in the legal text.
As until now, the first six weeks after birth, adoption or foster care are mandatory and must be enjoyed full -time. From there, each of the parents can distribute another 11 weeks at will, accumulated or interrupted but always within the first 12 months. Nor does this change.
The novelty is two weeks paid for permission for care. These may be taken immediately after birth permission if desired or during the first eight years of the child's life, in full or partial time. Your enjoyment is much more flexible.
How do they pay them?
The decree, which modifies both the statute of workers and the basic statute of the public employee, establishes that during these weeks there is a temporary suspension of the employment contract.
The cost of the new two -week permit is assumed entirely for Social Security – not for companies – and working people will receive 100% of the regulatory base, that is, a 100% equivalent benefit of their usual salary.
It is, in all cases, contributory benefits, that is, “at the beginning of each of the rest periods the working person must be in a high or assimilated situation to the one.”
Can the weeks be transferred between parents?
No. The permits are the same and non -transferable for both parents (in the event that there are two). The rule continues as until now in birth permits and maintains the same spirit for weeks for care. That is, a mother cannot take the two weeks that correspond to the father, or vice versa.
“This right is the individual of the working person without their exercise being transferred to the other parent,” marks the Royal Decree-Law.
How do I ask my company?
Workers must communicate to the company, at least 15 days, the petition “under the terms established in collective agreements.”
What does it mean that the new two -week permit paid for care is applied retroactively?
The decree contemplates retroactivity in this benefit since August 2024. This implies, as indicated to Eldiario.es sources of work, that people whose sons and daughters were born from August 2024 may receive this remuneration until they turn eight years old. Not only boys and girls born from the entry into force of the new decree. This threshold has been marked because it coincides with the moment when Spain should have transposed the directive that included these new rights.
In the event that someone has enjoyed these two weeks without paying in the last year, the administration could be claimed, provided that the birth is after August 2, 2024, the equivalent amount, according to sources from the Ministry of Labor.
What happens if I am already enjoying my permission for birth? Is an equal week expanded?
Progenitors who are in the midst of their paternity or maternity permission cannot take advantage of this extension.
If I am the only parent, how long does it correspond to me from permits from now on?
It will be 28 weeks for paternity and maternity in the case of single -parent families, compared to the 26 weeks recognized in a November judgment of the Constitutional Court. The measure responds to a historical claim of women who have children alone.
These mothers – the majority in single -parent families – and parents will be entitled to four more paid weeks – the double than the rest – until their sons or daughters turn eight years. These weeks can be taken next to the birthmark or extended during the next eight years, so the Government has announced a total of 32 weeks.
What happens with the eight weeks that could already be taken without remuneration?
They remain at the disposal of working people who want to take advantage of them but are not paid.
Why has the government approved by decree these reforms?
The exposure of reasons is clear in this regard: “The approval through a Royal Decree-Law of this rule is justified in the advanced state of processing in which the infringement procedure against Spain is found due to lack of transposition of the Directive (EU) 2019/1158 in relation to the paental paid permit regulated in its article 5”.
Spain has had almost ten million euros for the delay in remuneration. At the rate of 9,760 euros a day, the Ministry of Labor warned in May.
With these changes, Spain finally meets Brussels?
The deadline to transpose the European Directive approved in 2019 concluded on August 2, 2024. Therefore, the two weeks of paid permission, which can join at birth or take in the next eight years, apply retroactively since that date. “The urgency of the transposition of the remuneration of these two weeks is completely accredited,” says the text of the decree.
The directive forced to ensure at least 22 weeks of paid permits, between birth and care. That is, technically they were missing for three to meet Europe. With this change, this number is reached: 19 between birth and care, in addition to three accumulated by the breastfeeding permit, which remain in force for both parents.
What matters is the final computation. For example, Spain is very much in front of what requires directive in birth permits for men, just 10 days. The aforementioned breastfeeding permit, cumulative in full days since May 2024 and enjoyable until the baby turns nine months old was also recently reformed.
Why have they taken so long in giving green light to these modifications?
The lack of agreement between the two government partners has led to a delay in the approval that has also cost money to public coffers. Sumar has intensified the pressure on the PSOE, training on which the Ministry of Finance depends, at different times of the last year while the government continues without general state budgets. This fact makes it difficult to make important disbursements.
In the end, the fruit of the negotiation is less ambitious than the Government Agreement between the two formations: 20 weeks of birth permit and four remunerated to take care of up to eight years. That is, 24 in total.
