Filenews 11 October 2022 - by Adamos Adamou
The European directive on work-life balance may refer to paid parental leave of eight weeks, but in the first instance in Cyprus an allowance for parental leave will be given for just two weeks. Therefore, those who have children of six or seven years of age and since parental leave should be taken up to the child's eight years of age will not be able to receive the benefit of all eight weeks.
In essence, the EU directive will be adopted, on the basis of what has been submitted to parliament, in instalments. For the purpose of harmonizing the country with this directive, which also provides for paid parental leave, six bills have been submitted to parliament, which are expected to be discussed in the Working Committee of the House before they reach the Plenary of the House for a vote. This is the harmonization bill entitled "The Paternity, Parental, Caring, Force Majeure) and Flexible Working Arrangements for Work-Life Balance Law of 2022" but also amendments to five other legislations, including the Social Insurance Law.
We recall that the European directive provides, among other things, for the granting of paid parental leave for two months. To this end, the harmonized bill that has been prepared, in which both existing legislations on paternity leave and on parental leave will be incorporated (the latter is still in force today but is unpaid), provides for the provision of 18 weeks of parental leave to parents with children up to eight years old - for each child - of which a parental leave allowance will be paid for eight weeks. A worker intending to exercise the right to parental leave shall be obliged to warn his or her employer, one month before the date of commencement of parental leave, informing him or her of the date on which that leave begins and ends. As provided for in the same legislation, parental leave may, if the parents meet the requirements of the law, be taken in instalments with a minimum duration of one week and a maximum of five weeks, per calendar year. By extension, the parental leave allowance can also be received for a minimum of one week and a maximum of five per year.
This, however, as has been mentioned, will not happen immediately. As clarified in the bill that will amend the Social Insurance Law, the parental leave allowance will initially be paid for a total period of six weeks until August 1, 2024 and for a total period of eight weeks from August 2, 2024.
- The same bill also provides that in the first phase, i.e. with the passing of the legislation and until the end of 2023, the minimum period for the payment of the parental leave allowance is one week but the maximum period is limited to two weeks. From the beginning of 2024, the maximum period of payment of the parental leave allowance is increased to 4 weeks per calendar year and from January 1, 2025 onwards it is finally increased to five weeks.
Regarding the amount of the weekly allowance, the bill states that the basic will amount to 72% "of the weekly value of the insurance unit (or its fraction) that the insured person has in his/her credit to his/her basic insurance in the relevant year of contributions" and the supplementary to 60% "of the weekly value of the number of insurance units that the insured person has in his/her credit to his/her supplementary insurance against the relevant year of contributions'.
POINT OF VIEW
The Government is in a hurry
Although the bills on paid parental leave are difficult, the possibility of a delay in their passage is not the most prevalent. This is because the Ministry of Labor informed the Parliament that the EU has already sent a letter of formal notice for the non-timely transposition of the directive into national law and that the Republic has two months, until November 21, to send its reply. Therefore, it is assumed that the legislation will be passed soon, ensuring that the parental leave allowance will also benefit parents whose children are approaching eight years of age. However, it is not guaranteed to avoid mistakes, which are often observed when... we are in a hurry.
