EU plans to extend maternity leave

Vladimír Špidla, the EU social affairs commissioner, is putting forward a proposal to extend the minimum level of maternity leave from the current 14 weeks to 18.

The EU Commission’s 2008 work programme, adopted in October 2007, includes the revision of the existing 1992 directive on pregnant workers as one of its priorities. Špidla, who is the commissioner responsible for making these decisions, proposes to not only increase the minimum length of pregnancy leave to 18 weeks, but to also introduce a requirement that maternity pay should be at the level of existing net pay, rather than the current position where it must only be equivalent to sick pay. (In the UK, for example, there is now a year’s maternity leave — but for many women only six weeks’ is close to net pay.)

Speaking to the German newspaper Financial Times Deutschland at the beginning of last month, Špidla said that “an extension of maternity leave would be good, because it would increase the chances of women returning to work quickly”. He added that we must make sure that women having children does not block their careers or require significant financial losses.

His proposals must first be agreed by the whole Commission which is likely to discuss them this month. If adopted, they are then put to the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers to be debated by the member states.