CELEX: 51983PC0686
Language: en
Date: 1983-11-22
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE ON PARENTAL LEAVE AND LEAVE FOR FAMILY REASONS

N o C 333/6                         Official Journal of the European Communities                                9. 12. 83
                                                           II
                                                   (Preparatory Acts)
                                              COMMISSION
                   Proposal for a Council Directive on parental leave and leave for family reasons
                                                  (COM(83) 686 final
                         (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 24 November 1983)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                    treatment for men and women as regards access to
COMMUNITIES,,                                                  employment, vocational training and promotion, and
                                                               working conditions (3),
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the
European Economic Community, and in particular
Article 100 thereof,                                           HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                                                       SECTION 1
Having regard to the opinion of the European                                      General provisions
Parliament,
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                                        Article 1
Social Committee,                                              For the purpose of this Directive:
Whereas the Commission, in its communication to
                                                               Parental leave shall mean entitlement to leave of a
the Council of 9 December 1981 on a new
                                                               given duration to wage-earners, fathers, mothers,
Community Action Programme on the promotion of
                                                               including staff working in the public sector, conse-
equal opportunities for women             1982-1985 (*),
                                                               quential upon the birth of a child, during the period
undertook to take action to promote parental leave
                                                               following the termination of maternity leave, or to
for family reasons;
                                                               workers, as defined above, on the adoption of a child
                                                               during the period following its reception in the
Whereas the Council, in its resolution of 12 July 1982         adoptive parents' household, during which period of
on the promotion of equal opportunities for                    leave the beneficiary takes responsibility for the actual
women (2), approved the general aims of the                    care of the child.
Commission communication and expressed the will to
implement the appropriate measures to achieve such
aims;                                                          Leave for family reasons shall mean entitlement to
                                                               short periods of leave granted for pressing family
                                                               reasons to workers with family responsibilities.
Whereas there are disparities between the Member
States in national provisions on parental leave and
leave for family reasons, great enough to affect the
compatible functioning of the common market;                                             Article 2
whereas it is appropriate to remedy this by an approxi-         1.    This Directive is designed to entitle workers to
mation of laws towards the most advanced provisions            parental leave and leave for family reasons under
in the terms of Article 117 of the Treaty, under               harmonized conditions in the Member States.
conditions such as will improve the standard of living
and working conditions of the labour force;
                                                               2.     Provisions for the implementation of this
                                                               Directive ensure that there shall be no discrimination
Whereas it is necessary to ensure respect in this area         whatsoever on grounds of sex whether directly or
for the principles of equal treatment as laid down in           indirectly by reference, in particular, to marital or
Council Directive 76/207/EEC of 9 February 1976                 family status.
on the implementation of the principle of equal
 (') COM(81) 758 final.
 O OJ No C 186, 21. 7. 1982, p. 3.                              (») OJ No L 39, 14. 2. 1976, p. 40.
 ---pagebreak---  9.12. 83                             Official Journal of the European Communities                           No C 333/7
 3. This Directive shall be without prejudice to                                          Article 5
^provisions granting paternity leave to a father on the
 birth of a child.                                                1. Parental leave shall be accorded as a continuous
                                                                 period of either full-time leave or, with the agreement
                                                                 of both the individual parent and the employer
                                                                 concerned, as part-time leave, the period during
                          Article 3                              which leave is taken being extended proportionately.
 1. All wage-earners, including staff working in the             2. Where parental leave is taken in                  part,
 public sector, are entitled to parental leave and leave         entitlement to the remaining part shall cease.
 for family reasons.
                                                                 3. Parental leave may be made subject to a
                                                                 requirement regarding length of service or
 2. Part-time workers shall be entitled to parental              employment, which must not, in any case, exceed one
 leave and leave for family reasons. Any allowance               year.
 granted or period of insurance credited shall be
 calculated on the same basis as and in proportion to            4. Parental leave shall be suspended in the event of
 those of full-time workers in the same situation.               the illness of the parent on leave, within the
                                                                 limitations set in Article 4 (5).
                                                                 5. Periods of parental leave or leave for family
                         SECTION 2                               reasons shall not prejudice any entitlements acquired
                       Parental leave                            or in the process of being acquired.
                                                                 6. Periods of parental leave shall be credited in the
                          Article 4                              same manner as periods of maternity leave for the
 1. Parental leave shall be be granted to enable a               purposes of periods of insurance as regards sickness,
 working parent to stay at home in order to take sole            unemployment and invalidity benefit and old-age
 or principal charge of his or her child.                        pensions.
                                                                 7. On termination of the leave, the worker shall
                                                                 return to the same job or be assigned to an equivalent
 2. Parental leave shall constitute a right and not an
                                                                 job.
 obligation. It shall be granted to a working parent on
 request subject to the following provisions:
 — the workers shall give adequate notice of their                                        Article 6
      intention to take parental leave;                          1. During parental leave, workers may receive a
 — the workers shall give adequate notice of their               parental leave allowance.
      intention to return to work after parental leave;
 — in no case shall the period of notice required                2. This allowance should be paid from public
                                                                 funds, social security systems included.
      exceed two months.
                                                                                          Article 7
 3. The period of parental leave to which workers
                                                                 Provisions limiting recourse to temporary work shall
 are entitled shall be at least three months.
                                                                 not prevent employers from replacing workers absent
                                                                 on parental leave.
 4. The duration of parental leave may be extended
 for the single parent in the case of one-parent families                                SECTION 3
 or for both parents where the child is handicapped
 and lives at home.                                                               Leave for family reasons
                                                                                           Article 8
  5. Entitlement to parental leave shall cease when               1. Workers shall be entitled to claim a minimum
 the child reaches the age of two years, or five years in         number of days leave per annum (to be laid down by
 the case of a handicapped child living in the                    the Member States) for pressing family reasons.
  household of the entitled parent, or of an adopted
  child.                                                          2. The following amongst others               shall   be
                                                                  considered as pressing family reasons:
  6. A worker's right to parental leave shall not be              — illness of a spouse;
 transferable.                                                    — death of a near relative;
 ---pagebreak--- N o C 333/8              '           Official Journal of the European Communities                                    9. 12.83
— wedding of a child;                                                                     Article 12
                                                                 1.    Member States shall introduce the laws, regu-
— illness of a child, or the person caring for the
                                                                lations and administrative provisions necessary in
     child.
                                                                order to comply with this Directive and put it into
                                                                effect at the latest by           (x).
3.     The duration of this leave as provided for in
paragraph 1 may be extended where:                              2.    Member States shall abolish or amend any laws,
                                                                regulations or administrative provisions contrary to
— the beneficiary is head of a single-parent family;            the provisions of this Directive and shall take the
                                                                measures necessary to ensure that similar provisions
— the beneficiary concerned has three or more                   in collective agreements, individual contracts of
     children living at home, under an age limit to be          employment and internal rules of undertakings are
     determined.                                                likewise abolished or amended.
4.     For the purposes of remuneration, social                 3.    Member States shall immediately inform the
security contributions and allowances and pension               Commission of measures taken in compliance with
entitlements, periods of leave for family reasons shall         this Directive.
be assimilated to paid holidays.
                                                                4.    Member States shall ensure that adequate
                                                                machinery exists to enable measures introduced in
                        SECTION 4                               implementation of this Directive to be enforced
                                                                especially with regard to the principle of equal
                     Final provisions                           treatment of male and female workers.
                          Article 9                                                       Article 13
                                                                                   2
                                                                1.    By          ( ) at the latest, Member States shall
Member States shall introduce into their national               transmit to the Commission all relevant information
legal systems such measures as are necessary to enable          to enable the latter to draw up a report on its
all persons who consider themselves wronged by                  application for submission to the Council and the
failure to apply this Directive to pursue their claims          European Parliament.
by judicial process, possibly after recourse to other
competent authorities.                                          2.    By          (2) at the latest and every three years
                                                                thereafter, the Member States shall transmit infor-
                                                                mation to the Commission with respect to progress
                         Article 10                             made in the application of this Directive, trends in the
                                                                use of the provisions contained therein and the
Member States shall take the necessary measures to
                                                                evolution of public childcare facilities and services to
protect workers against dismissal by the employer as a
                                                                enable the Commission to draw up a report for the
reaction to any steps taken by the worker aimed at
                                                                Council every three years.
enforcing compliance with the provisions of this
Directive.
                                                                                          Article 14
                         Article 11                             This Directive is addressed to the Member States.
This Directive shall be brought to the attention of
employers and workers, emphasizing the availability             (') Date to be inserted, being two years from the date of
of parental leave and leave for family reasons to                   notification.
working parents of both sexes.                                  (2) Date to be inserted, being three years from notification.