The unions consider that it is a step forward, although they have asked for replacement to be compulsory in order to extend the impact of this measure on employment. They also consider that the promotion of equality at work for women requires more general action and they demand the complete transposition of the European Directives on maternity and parental leave. Only employers who hire new substitutes can benefit of this Zero cost measure, but not employers who use other mechanisms to substitute the workload of the employee on leave. It has also been suggested that employers should be able to hire these substitutes before the replaced employee goes on maternity leave, in order to be trained. Therefore even if the measure implies an improvement, it can not be said that it compensates all the costs for maternity leave replacements.
Maternity leave still has extra costs for employers in most cases and for self-employed.
Policies intended to overcome female discrimination at work need to take this into account. However, this small and very practical measure shows that it is possible to improve leave arrangements simultaneously from the point of view of employers and employees. It would be important to follow-up the development of the measure in relation to the number of users and public expenditure. It would be interesting also to extent this measure to the public administration and public administration institutes. Presently temporary contracts and cases of discrimination in relation to pregnancy and maternity have also appeared in public administration.