The 16th Social Court of Valencia has recognised the right of a mother of a single-parent family to enjoy the additional eight weeks of paternity leave to care for her child, on the grounds that the child "cannot see this time of care guaranteed by law reduced because of having only one parent".
The ruling, in a case defended by the CSIF trade union and against which an appeal can be lodged, partially upholds the claim brought by the woman and condemns the National Social Security Institute and the General Social Security Treasury to pay the costs of this declaration. The woman requested, after having taken her maternity leave between 3 October 2020 and 22 January 2021, the additional 12 weeks which would correspond to the father as a single-parent household.
However, the Valencia Provincial Directorate of the Social Security denied her this, considering that, according to the Workers' Statute, it is "an individual right and that, therefore, it cannot be transferred to the other parent". However, the judge partially agreed with the woman as she understood that given that the law establishes that four weeks of paternal leave must be immediately after the birth and the remaining eight weeks after the birth, as the mother had taken those four weeks immediately after giving birth, "that time cannot be considered as a breach of the principle of equality". Read more.
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