Paternal leave 90 days from 1 January 2005

According to the Law on Parental Care and Family Cash Benefits (LPCFCB) a father has the right to 90 days of paternity leave from 1 January 2005 onwards. 21 November 2001 the parliament passed the LPCFCB which introduced some urgently required changes necessary to harmonise the Slovenian legislation with that of the EU. The LPCFCB is fully in accordance with the Council Directive 96/34/EC regulating parental leave.

21 November 2001 the parliament passed the Law on Parental Care and Family Cash Benefits (LPCFCB) which introduced some urgently required changes necessary to harmonise the Slovenian legislation with that of the EU. The first part of the LPCFCB regulates the insurance system for the parental care (parental leave: maternity leave, paternity leave, leave for the nursing and care of the child and adoption leave), the rights arising from this insurance and the procedure of putting into force these rights.

The LPCFCB is fully in accordance with the Council Directive 96/34/EC of 3 June 1996 on the framework agreement on parental leave concluded by UNICE, CEEP and the ETUC, whose main purpose is to implement the framework agreement on parental leave in the EU ([TN0403101S](encoding fixed)). This agreement commits member states to ensure individual rights of employed women and men to at least 3 months of parental leave based on non-transferability. The EU prescribes the minimum standard whose aim is to reconcile the parental and professional obligations of employed parents. The form and method is left to be defined by national authorities, while the contents of the Directive are implemented through the national legal system. According to the LPCFCB, the father retains the right to leave for the nursing and care of the child (up to 260 days). However, this is not his exclusive (individual) right because it is transferable. The right to paternity leave is therefore one of the possible ways of implementing this Directive and is an important step towards providing equal opportunities for men and women.

According to the LPCFCB from 1 January 2005 onwards a father has the right to 90 days of paternity leave.

This right was introduced in 2003 and was introduced gradually : 15 days as of 1 January 2003, 45 days as of 1 January 2004, and the whole 90 days as of 1 January 2005. Paternity leave has been designed for the father only. The LPCFCB defines it as his individual and non-transferrable right based on 'the take it or leave it principle'.

A father must use a minimum of 15 days of the paternal leave during the period of maternity leave of the mother. These 15 days of leave must be in the form of full absence from the work. A father is not entitled to the paternity leave if he uses maternity leave (in exceptional cases if mother dies, abandons the child, is permanently or temporarily unable for independent life and work). The father has the right to 100% wage compensation during the first 15 days (100% of the insurance base).

A father can use the remaining 75 days of the paternal leave in the form of a full absence from the work at any time before the child reaches 8 years of age. He retains the status of an employed person during these remaining 75 days when the state pays his social security contributions based on the minimum wage. The records on the use of this part of the leave are kept by the employer and the centre for social work.

With the LPCFCB Slovenia recognised the right to paternal leave and provided institutional support. However, it is very likely that a decision to take this right will not be straightforward. It is not realistic to expect that the father will take this right in full, as the main factor involved is probably the money issue. We are also not likely to see any major changes in the economic environment (not soon, at least) which would allow families to compensate for the shortfalls in the father’s income or bring about new values and equal negotiating positions between partners which result from the equal sharing of work. In the current system, the mother’s social and economic position remains of crucial importance: the better this position the more likely the father will take his paternity leave.

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