In late 2000, a small Spanish business group, the Circle of Employers, was forced to make a public apology for suggesting that employed women pay the employers' maternity leave costs. Though the proposal was widely condemned as being unconstitutional and inapplicable, as well as socially and
A new law which came into force in Spain in November 1999 reforms the whole set of rules on family-related leave arrangements, and completes the transposition of the EU Directives on maternity protection and parental leave.