• 20/12/2022
• By wizewebsite
• 305 Views

Paternity leave will be extended, MPs approved | Penize.cz<

New dads will be able to take up to two weeks of "paternity leave" instead of one. The extension, which was proposed by a group of deputies led by Olga Richterová (Pirates), was approved by representatives of the government and opposition parties.

"It is basically the implementation of a European directive, which we are a little ahead of time, but sooner or later this provision in the Czech legal system would have to be adopted," explains Richterová.

Those interested in paternity leave must choose it sometime during the first six weeks after the birth of the child - in the so-called six-month period. This restriction remains unchanged.

However, the period will be extended by a corresponding number of days if the child is hospitalized during the first six weeks. A typical situation is the placement of a baby in an incubator or other medical complications. According to the new rules, the father can decide for himself whether to use up paternity leave during hospitalization, or whether to wait until the child is home. She will no longer be entitled to a benefit six weeks after giving birth, regardless of such a limitation.

Both improvements will come into effect from January 2022. They are part of the amendment to the law on health insurance, which came up with a group of ČSSD deputies led by Alena Gajdůšková. The original proposal only provided for the extension of the deadline by days of hospitalization.

Leave for childbirth

Employees are legally entitled to work leave when a child is born.

An employee who takes his wife or girlfriend to give birth can claim paid time off.

The employer must subsequently release him for the period of childbirth, but he does not have to pay compensation.

In more detail:

"Although paternity also applies when a child is hospitalized, it is obvious that it cannot fulfill its purpose in the full breadth of the intended effects. The hospital environment itself and, in the case of a child's hospitalization for medical reasons, his health condition do not in many cases allow the full achievement of the goals with which this benefit was introduced. This applies, for example, to the father's ability to take part in the care of a newborn child, the running of the household and the like," explains Gajdůšková.

"In some cases of hospitalization, the possibility of physical contact of the child with the father can also be limited, for example when a premature baby is placed in an incubator. At the same time, this is one of the basic ways of creating a psychological and emotional bond with parents for newborn babies," says Gajdůšková.

Paternity is a sickness insurance benefit that has only been in effect since February 2018. It can be chosen by employees and entrepreneurs if they pay sickness insurance. From it, they receive 70 percent of the so-called assessment base (gross wages, to put it simply), i.e. the same as women with cash assistance in maternity, or maternity.

The "Paternity Postpartum Care Allowance" is intended to provide financial security for a father who wants to care for a newborn child at the same time as the mother. Although the child can take parental leave from the day of birth, he cannot receive maternity allowance for the first six weeks after the birth (he can take turns with the child's mother in the right to this benefit only after six weeks from the birth). In addition, only one of the parents can receive financial support (cash assistance in maternity or parental allowance), while this restriction does not apply when using paternity.

Last year, 45,959 people applied for paternity leave, in 2019 there were 49,306.

Let's add that in addition to the child's father, a person who has taken custody of a child under the age of seven is also entitled to paternity leave.

Paternity care

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Petr Kučera

Editor-in-chief of the website Peníze.cz. It focuses on a wide range of personal finance and consumer topics. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague, but he likes the media even more than paragraphs. He led the coverage of the Czech... More articles by the author.