More than two months ago, the Plenary Session of Congress approved an opinion from the Labor Commission that promotes measures to protect the rights of parents who work in the public or private sector. One of the main scope of this legislative proposal is the extension of paternity leave from 10 to 15 days, in cases of natural births or cesarean sections.
Likewise, this permit is modified for premature births and multiple births from 20 to 25 consecutive calendar days. Although the parliamentarians validated the exoneration of the second vote of the opinion, the law’s signature was not sent to the Executive Branch for publication in the official newspaper El Peruano. What happened? We will tell you in the following note.
Why hasn’t the paternity leave modification been enacted yet?
By a large majority, the Plenary Session of Congress approved last Wednesday, March 13, the replacement text of the opinion that seeks to protect the rights of mothers and fathers who work in the State or in the private sector. This rule extends paternity leave for up to 15 consecutive days and prohibits the dismissal of parents with children up to one year after the birth of their minor, among other scopes.
At that time, the highest assembly of the Legislature also approved the exemption of the second vote of the opinion, so it was ready to be sent to the Executive Branch for subsequent promulgation or observation. However, the law was suspended and is still within the parliamentary jurisdiction.
It turns out that on Wednesday, April 17, the president of the Labor Commission, Pasión Dávila, sent a letter to the head of Congress, Alejandro Soto, to request reconsideration of the vote on the opinion and incorporate a change in article 2 of the replacement text, which is not related to paternity leave, but to adoption leave granted to the mother.
“In this regard, I inform you that, in the process of preparing the autograph corresponding to the approved text, an important omission was noted in article 2, which only considers that workers (spouses or members of a de facto union) who could request work leave due to adoption are those who worked for the same employer, ignoring workers who worked for different employers. This is the reason why I request this reconsideration,” the letter reads.
Let us remember that currently adoption leave is granted to mothers for a period of 30 days. However, with the modification to article 4 of Law No. 27409, it seeks to extend this permission to both spouses or members of the de facto union. Since there was an error in the wording, parliamentarian Pasión Dávila states that the correction to the text will make an explicit mention of the “workers who work for different employers.
More days of paternity leave: when would the vote be taken again?
The new text of the opinion that extends paternity leave should be subject to reconsideration in the next Plenary Session of Congress. However, this will depend on the prioritization given by the executive bodies of Congress. Had there not been an error in the drafting of the text, the law would have already been sent to the Executive Branch in mid-March.
So, this request from the president of the Labor Commission, Pasión Dávila, is still pending to be resolved. Once the rule is scheduled in the next Plenary Session of Congress, it may be voted on again and the Executive will have a period of 15 days to authorize its publication in the official newspaper El Peruano or observe it.
Source: Larepublica
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