On Tuesday the government will approve strengthening the current breastfeeding leave so that it can always be converted to 28 full days – a right that in practice today is only available to workers covered by agreements that recognize it. The initiative of the Ministry of Labor will indicate that This authorization applies to all employees reinforcing what is already contained in the Workers’ Statute. Today the norm is that workers have the right to take one hour away from work to care for an infant until the child is nine months old, and that they can accumulate these hours into full days, but companies generally do not allow this option if it is not specified in collective agreements.

This will not be the only labor measure taken by ministers on Tuesday. Vice President and Minister Yolanda Diaz intends also to carry forward transparent conditions and a predictable work directive and, to the extent possible, unemployment benefit reform which caused so much controversy. Ministry sources have assured that they will negotiate through the night to reach the best deal with the economy, but always keeping their promise to improve and extend benefits without cutting them, as Labor says Calviño’s ministry intends.

New family law It has already changed the so-called “infant care authorization” – an individual authorization that today can be applied for by both the father and the mother – both, without having to choose – and which is paid for by the company. It can be used until children are nine months old, and in some cases extended to twelve months. Its main feature is that workers can be absent one hour a day to care for a minor, or half or two hours a day – half at the beginning and half at the end of the day – at the request of the new parent.

Today, the employee can add hours of the specified vacation and convert them to full days, But in practice this only happens if it is stated in your collective agreement, and that is what Labor wants to enshrine. The change that is being made is the following: working days of returning to work after maternity leave are counted until the child reaches 9 months, the hours of leave are counted and divided by the number of hours of the working day. The result is the number of days that an employee can be absent from his or her job with pay due to breastfeeding.

Today this is reflected in the Labor Statute, Article 37.4: “Who enjoys this right [el de una hora de ausencia del trabajo para el cuidado del lactante]according to his will, You can replace it by shortening your working hours. for half an hour for the same purpose or to accumulate it for full days within the time limits provided for in the collective agreement or in the agreement reached with the society, observing, if necessary, what is established there.”

“The reduction in working hours provided for in this section constitutes individual rights of workers without the possibility of transferring its implementation to another parent, adoptive parent, guardian or adoptive person. However, if two employees of the same enterprise exercise this right in the same matter, its simultaneous exercise may be limited for well-founded and objective reasons for the company’s activities, duly motivated in writing, in which case the enterprise must propose a plan, an alternative that ensures pleasure for both workers and makes possible the exercise of conciliatory rights.”

The Mystery of Unemployment Benefits

While Labor sources say the Council of Ministers will approve unemployment benefits reform on Tuesday, it is unclear which direction the measure will take. It’s worth remembering fight -public- between the ministries of labor and economy because of this subsidy: while in Yolanda Diaz they want to increase its amount and beneficiaries at any cost, in Nadia Calviño they are committed to changes aimed at employment, for example that it can be compatible with a year’s work or that the amount on which accrual goes from smaller to larger, without changing the overall calculation.

But the fact that the Labor Department presented not only its own proposal, but also that of the economy, skewed the debate in favor of the former department. On the other hand, as this newspaper has already explained, economists have supported Calviño’s approach, as they claim that scientific evidence supports it and that it is trying to adapt to the characteristics of subsidies in other European countries.

They were also under the impression that such a controversy was unnecessary, given that only about 800,000 Spaniards receive benefits, and that the real issue of unemployment benefit spending is related to reforming active employment policies, a battle that many regret was fought lost. Labor could therefore take advantage of this difference of opinion to build a political profile just as the first vice-president and economy minister leaves office to take over as president of the European Investment Bank (EIB).