European Maternity Leave for Men

European men are lucky compared to their male counterparts from Australia and United States as the government has taken a lot of consideration regarding maternity leave policies which they are benefiting richly from.

What exactly is maternity leave?

People take maternity leave during pregnancy, immediately after childbirth or when they have adopted a baby and often this leave is referred to as maternity or paternity leave.

People clamp sick leave, vacation leave, and personal days off leave as well as maternity leave together this is known as package leave. As fathers you may not be eligible for maternity leave but then you can take these leaves when need arises. The main goal should be every country should have separate policies for maternity leaves without clubbing these with sick leave, vacation leave etc.

Maternity laws varies from country to country, company to company and the type of company you’re working in, number of employers etc yet another factor is that some companies give paid leaves while others give non-paid leaves.

European Maternity leaves for men

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions has relevant documents regarding maternity leave sanctioned to parents in each country. Cited below are examples taken from the documents found in Eurofound.

European maternity policies for men:

Sweden: Either of the parents is allowed about sixty days of parental leave and they can split yet another year of leave between themselves until their child is eight years old. Fathers are allotted paid leaves, along with this parents can reduce their working hours by 75% if need arose till their child turns 8years.

Portugal: Each parent gets six full months of leave till the child reaches the age of three i.e. if you are working 40 hours on an average every week. Fathers are given fifteen days of work leave giving them the right to claim their complete pay pack, further Portugal allows parents to reduce their working hours to suit their children until they attain the age of 12 years.

Europe, Spain, Cyprus laws give less maternity leaves compared to other European countries. Spain has joint leave options wherein the father’s get unpaid leave though it allows fathers to reduce their working hours only if the child is handicapped. Cyprus gives parents unpaid leave allowing a leave period of 3 months which can be spilt by parents for a time period of 6 years.

Statistical reports on European father maternity leave:

Reports state that in spite of father knowing their rights they prefer not to take leave as their wives stay at home to care for the baby. If men are given maternity benefits like job security, paid leave etc more men would come forward to take such leaves to support their wives. Swedish fathers take more maternity leaves compared to European fathers as they have more maternity leave benefits.

To help retain a marriage and develop a happy family bonding maternity leaves for fathers is important as this is known to bring out positive feeling on the child.