It seems that the new year will bring new developments in Family Law, in the form of a new regulation announced by the Minister for Social Rights and Agenda 2030, Ione Belarra.
Her Family Law, which has yet to be detailed and which, therefore, could undergo modifications during the time it is being processed, will include, among other things, a care leave of at least 7 days a year one hundred percent paid, both to care for children and for parents or other cohabitants.
We will tell you the known details of this future Law, and we are at your disposal to solve any doubts you may have regarding Family Law.
Keys to the future Family Law
There is still time to know the specific details of the future Family Law, but we have the data advanced by the minister in the framework of the conference ‘A law to protect all families’, at Caixa Forum, where a White Paper for a new national framework on family support and protection was presented.
In Belarra’s words, the pandemic has taught us “how important it is to take care of ourselves and to have time to take care of others, and these are lessons that are here to stay”. Hence this attempt to bring us into line with other European Union countries and establish a care leave of at least 7 days a year per person, which is one hundred percent paid.
Specifically, as explained by the media, Belarra seeks that this leave allows “to stay at home taking care of the children when they have spent a bad night vomiting or with fever”, or to be able to “ask for the day to take your parents to the doctor or to be with your partner if she is sick”,“In short, a leave that gives peace of mind to families when they need to be close to their loved ones”. This leave will reach up to 9 days a year to attend to a family member or partner in case it involves a trip to another autonomous community.
The improvement is substantial considering that Spanish legislation currently contemplates a paid care leave of up to two days, far from what is proposed by the European Union, which recommends a leave of this type of 5 days a year in Directive 2019/1158.
In addition, it is also important the fact that these leaves can be enjoyed to take care of any cohabitant, in addition to relatives up to the second degree of consanguinity, such as grandparents or grandchildren.
On the other hand, the Law will eliminate the current requirement of a serious illness to be able to make use of this paid leave, so that it could be applied in Covid cases.
It is likely that in the next few days new details will be revealed about this regulation, the spirit of which we welcome.
If the last few years have taught us anything, it is the need to strengthen family and social support networks to take care of each other.
Seeking greater compatibility between work and personal life is essential for building a healthier society that puts people and their care back at the center of the equation.
In this line, the Government refers to the problem of burnout that exists in our country and that affects fathers and mothers, especially the latter, as they are traditionally the ones who bear the greatest burden of family responsibility, in addition to work.
The balance between the need to work in order to take care of our children and the need to spend quality time with them is often complicated.
In fact, the Executive speaks of the “right to care”, a concept that we find interesting and that emphasizes the need to guarantee the welfare of families also from public policies.
Betting on this type of legislative reform not only benefits individuals, but also the public, since care among close people has a positive impact on everyone’s health, both physical and mental.
Ailments such as stress, insomnia, depression… have a lot to do with the lack of care and quality time. The same applies to family crises, where the accelerated pace of life has a lot to do with conflicts.
It is a reality that we have observed in our law firm, and often minors are the most harmed by these circumstances.
Of course, in order for this law to come to fruition, parliamentary dialogue will be necessary. For the time being, the European Commission hopes that this law will prosper with the consensus of all and that it will be provided with the adequate means to make it work.
It is enough to look at one piece of data to realize the importance of this type of policy: Spain invests around 1.2 percent of GDP in direct family support benefits, below the EU average of 2.3 percent.
Another alarming fact is the birth rate in Spain.
We are experiencing a ‘demographic winter’ that has a lot to do with how difficult it is to be parents at this time, for many reasons.
In this sense, the White Paper presented includes more than 40 recommendations on four issues: the growing diversity of family models in Spain; that each family nucleus has access to benefits and services according to its needs; improving work-life balance; and promoting the culture of evaluation.
In this line, the Executive has pointed out that “it makes no sense” that there should be differences in rights between children whose parents are married and children born outside marital unions, which are increasingly more “The superior rights of the minor must prevail, regardless of the family they are born into”.
With these words we can sense the spirit of other reforms that could be contained in the future Family Law. If you need help in any matter related to Family Law, consult our lawyers in Barcelona.
