Moldova proposes 45 days of child care leave reserved for fathers

Fathers will be entitled to 45 days of parental leave

Each parent will be entitled to 45 calendar days of parental leave until the child reaches the age of three.

This provision is set forth in a draft law developed and submitted for consultation by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection. The new measure is proposed as a supplement to existing regulations aimed at more actively involving fathers in child care.

It has been determined that these days cannot be transferred to the other parent. Upon the employee’s request, this leave will be granted with job security and must be used in full. This period will not overlap with paternity leave, and paternity leave itself will not be counted toward the specified 45 calendar days.

As a rule, the mother takesthis leave

Currently, the Labor Code (LC) provides that partially paid leave to care for a child until the child reaches the age of three is granted, at the employee’s discretion, to one of the parents, a grandparent, another relative, or a guardian. However, this provision does not ensure sufficient involvement of both parents in child care, since such leave is typically taken by the mother.

Therefore, the authors propose introducing a mechanism to retain the more favorable benefit amount and shortening the mandatory leave period to 45 days instead of two months, as is the case in some European countries.

They believe this approach is also more convenient for employers, as the period during which an employee is absent from work will be reduced. At the same time, it will ensure a balance between financial incentives and fathers’ right to participate in raising their child.

In this context, a provision has also been developed stipulating that if one of the parents does not take this leave, the amount of the child care allowance will be reduced by 30% for a period of 45 calendar days. In certain cases, the payment for this period may be forfeited entirely.

At the same time, there are cases in which this reduction will not apply. This applies to single-parent families and adoptive parents, as well as cases where one spouse is dependent on the other and does not have insured status, has a severe disability, or other exceptions.