As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, a woman’s full salary will be paid during the entire duration of Croatian maternity leave, and paternity leave is also now being introduced – the news is that, as Vecernji list unofficially finds out, the announcing of a proposal for a new Maternity and Parental Benefits Act.
Parental benefit during the six months of leave following the birth of a child currently amounts to a maximum of 5,654.20 kuna, and in the future it should be equated with the full salary of an employed or self-employed parent who uses that leave. An interesting new part of these rules is obligatory paternity leave, which the father will use together with the mother immediately after the birth of their child. It is a matter of harmonisation with the European Union directive governing the matter.
-”The implementation of Directive 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on the work-life balance of parents and carers and repealing Council Directive 2010/18/EU introduces a completely new law that didn’t previously exist in the Croatian legal system, and that is paternity leave. Paternity leave will allow employed and self-employed fathers to use at least ten working days on the occasion of the birth of their child with the aim of encouraging fathers to use their parental leave. The proposal that the compensation paid out during paternity leave be in the amount of full salary is being considered,” they confirmed from the Central State Office for Demography and Youth.
Namely, this office is responsible for regulating cash benefits during Croatian maternity leave.
”In addition, certain issues related to the difficulties in the application of the current law, as well as the possibilities of improving the area of parental leave, are all being reviewed,” they continued in their statement from the Central State Office for Demography and Youth. They didn’t specifically respond to any inquiries regarding the amount of parental benefit being discussed, but they did say that these legal changes should come into force in the third quarter of 2022.
Compulsory paternity leave should, in accordance with the aforementioned European Union directive, be introduced by the 2nd of August next year at the very latest. Yesterday, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic confirmed that he would move in the direction of delimiting Croatian maternity leave benefits. The view is that this is a very good demographic measure that can encourage families and young people to decide to have more children.
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