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28th October 2010

NEWS IN BRIEF

The European Parliament last week voted to extend minimum maternity leave from 14 to 20 weeks on full pay. It also approved an entitlement to time off for breast feeding.

However, it adopted an amendment which said that in countries with “family-related leave” the last four weeks (of the 20) could be regarded as maternity leave paid at 75% of salary.

Members of the European Parliament also backed the proposal of the European Commission that out of the total maternity leave, six weeks must be taken after childbirth.

Workers on maternity leave must be paid their full salary which must equate to 100% of their last monthly salary or their average monthly salary.

Under the Commission's original proposal, workers would only have received 100% of pay during the first six weeks of maternity leave. For the remainder of the leave, the Commission recommended granting full pay. This was not to be a binding provision but the amount paid was to be no less than sick pay.

The draft legislation seeks to lay down minimum rules at EU level. Member states are free to introduce or keep existing rules that are more favourable to workers than those agreed by the parliament.

Parliament also agreed the following measures:

• Giving women who are breastfeeding the right to two separate periods of at least an hour each (pro rata for part time workers but not less than 30 minutes; and increased by 30 minutes for each child in the case of multiple births), unless they have agreed something different with their employer
• Ensuring that workers do not have to do night work or work overtime during the ten weeks prior to their due date and during the entire period of breastfeeding
• Banning the dismissal of pregnant workers from the beginning of a pregnancy to at least six months following the end of the maternity leave.

These amendments to the EU Pregnant Workers Directive (92/85) have to be approved by a qualified majority of the Council of the European Union before they can become law.

For more information on the text adopted by the parliament, go to: http://www.europarl.europa.eu

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