The Ministry of Labor intends to carry out an expansion of what it has called “grief permits”, which it agreed to this Tuesday with the majority unions CCOO and UGT, with the rejection of the employers’ associations. This is an extension to 10 days of paid leave for the death of close relatives, as well as the creation of a new leave for palliative care and euthanasia, for which the Government must now seek parliamentary support.
The text agreed upon by Labor and the unions, which elDiario.es has accessed, is a royal decree law with several measures to expand the paid absence rights of workers when a close family member dies or when they are receiving palliative care.
“What there is now is anachronistic,” said this Tuesday the Secretary of State for Labor, Joaquín Pérez Rey, in reference to the current two days of leave for death, expandable to four when travel is required.
“No one can go to work two days after seeing how a child has died. No one can work under normal conditions when they have someone who is spending their last days in a hospital. Labor relations have to also be human relations,” added Pérez Rey.
Below are some keys to the proposal:
1) How many days would correspond to the death of a mother?
Ten days of leave paid by the company. The text contemplates “ten working days for mourning in the event of the death of the spouse, common-law partner or relatives up to the second degree of consanguinity”, which are the parents, children, grandparents and siblings of the worker.
It should be noted that the proposed text expressly specifies that the days are “working days”, although the Supreme Court has recently confirmed that the days of work leave must be enjoyed on working days and not calendar days, I do not wish to specify the opposite.
“The exercise of the right to days for mourning in the event of death may be distributed in continuous or discontinuous days, in a period of four weeks, counting from the causing event,” the legal draft states.
And for the death of a father-in-law?
For relatives “up to the second degree of affinity”, such as parents-in-law, brothers-in-law and sons-in-law, the current two days of leave are maintained, extendable to four days in the case of travel.
What does palliative care leave consist of?
A new work permit of “up to 15 working days is created for the care of a spouse, common-law partner or relatives up to the second degree by consanguinity, who require palliative care.” Again, for the parents, children, siblings and grandparents of the working person.
The exercise of this permit “may be divided, at the will of the worker, into two fractions, over a period of three months,” states the text agreed between Labor and the unions, “starting from the first day on which the worker takes advantage of said permit and until the date of death of the person who requires such care.”
This permission can only be used once for the person who requires palliative care.
Furthermore, the text specifies that this new permit can be used without prejudice to the right of the worker to also take advantage of the already existing permits “for hospitalization or surgical intervention without hospitalization” “if the patient were receiving palliative care under a home care regime.”
Modification of the day for palliative care?
The legal text also recognizes two other rights to modify the working day to provide palliative care for close relatives.
On the one hand, the right to request the adaptation of the duration and distribution of the working day (recognized in article 34.8 of the Workers’ Statute) is incorporated when there are care needs for “children over twelve years of age, the spouse or de facto partner, relatives by consanguinity up to the second degree of the worker, as well as other dependent persons when, in the latter case, they live in the same home” who “are in palliative care, both hospital and domiciliary.”
On the other hand, the right to a reduction in the working day is also recognized – “with a proportional decrease in salary between, at least, one-eighth and a maximum of half of the duration” – for “whoever needs to take care of the direct care of the spouse or de facto partner, or a family member up to the second degree of consanguinity and affinity, including the de facto partner’s blood relative” who is in palliative care, both hospital and home. “In this case, it highlights that they are included relatives up to the second degree of affinity.
What is the permit for euthanasia?
One day of leave is recognized for the euthanasia of close relatives. Specifically, the agreed text recognizes paid absence for the day “on which the healthcare professional self-administers or practices the provision of assistance in dying in the terms established in Organic Law 3/2021, of March 24, regulating euthanasia, provided that the worker has been designated to accompany the patient at that time.”
When is this legal change expected to be approved?
The Ministry of Labor has not yet specified when it plans to approve this legal modification, for which it has chosen as an instrument a royal decree law, which must be justified for reasons of urgent need. The text must go through the necessary mandatory procedures until it is approved by the Government in the Council of Ministers.
The royal decree laws come into force within the stipulated period when they are published in the Official State Gazette (BOE), but the Government has to find the necessary parliamentary support to validate it in Congress or, otherwise, they decay.
Despite the parliamentary weakness of the Executive, the Ministry of Labor expresses its confidence in being able to add the necessary support to extend these permits.
Source: www.eldiario.es
