Paternity leave in Spain will increase since next 1 April (from 5 to 8 weeks in 2019)
Important news in the enjoyment of paternity leave that shall become applicable from 1 April 2019, the date on which comes into force the article 12.2 of RD-Ley 6/2019, de 1 de marzo (published in Official State Gazette, BOE in Spanish, on March 7).
Current regulation
Until the next 31 March, the paternity leave is the following:
In the cases of child birth, adoption, custody for adoption or foster care, the worker will be entitled to suspension of the contract for paternity for five weeks, extendible by a further 2 days for each child from the second child in the case of multiple births, adoptions or children taken into foster care. This suspension is independent of the shared enjoyment of the rest periods regulated in sections 4 (suspension by childbirth) and 5 (cases of adoption, custody for adoption and foster care purposes) of art. 48 of the Workers’Statute (Estatuto de los Trabajadores, ET, in Spanish).
New regulation (since 1 April 2019 – 31 December 2019)
The paternity leave since the next 1 April 2019 will be the following:
In the case of birth, the other parent will have a total suspension period of eight weeks, of which the first two, must be enjoyed steadily immediately after the birth.
The biological mother may give up to the other parent a period of up to four weeks of their period of suspension of non-compulsory enjoyment (we must remember in this sense that in Spain, the first 6 weeks of maternity leave are a compulsory rest period for the mother).
The enjoyment of this period by the other parent, as well as that of the remaining six weeks, will be adapted to the provisions of article 48.4 of ET (Estatuto de los Trabajadores in Spain).
In the case of adoption, custody for adoption or foster care of a child, each parent will have a period of suspension of six weeks to enjoy full-time compulsory and steadily immediately after the court decision by which the adoption is constituted or of the administrative decision of guardianship for the purpose of adoption or fostering of a child.
Together with the six weeks of compulsory enjoyment, the parents will have a total of 12 weeks of voluntary enjoyment that they will have to enjoy continuosly within the 12 months following the judicial decision by which the adoption is constituted or since the administrative decision of guardianship for the purpose of adoption or foster care of a child, according to the provisions of article 48.5 of ET (Estatuto de los Trabajdores).
Each parent can individually enjoy a maximum of 10 weeks over the twelve total weeks of voluntary enjoyment, leaving the remaining over the total of twelve weeks at the disposal of the other parent.
When the two parents who exercise this right work for the same company, then this company may limit the simultaneous enjoyment of the 12 voluntary weeks for well-founded and objective reasons, making his reasoned submissions in writing.
In 2020 and 2021 the paternity leave will be gradually increased to 16 weeks (12 weeks in 2020 and 16 in 2021).
