Cyprus: new legislation for the protection of paternity and maternity leave
[Nicosia, September 2017] The Cyprus Women’s Lobby salutes the adoption of a new legislation which will ensure more equality between women and men with regards to parental roles and responsibilities.
The new legislation, that has been passed by the House of Representatives on 14 July 2017, consists of the Protection of the Paternity Act of 2017 and the Protection of Maternity Law of 2017. In particular, the Parental Protection Act provides for working fathers of newborns to be able to file for 15 days of paid paternity leave. The paid paternity leave must be used during the 16 weeks that maternity leave is in effect. It is payable for two consecutive weeks from the birth or adoption date.
The Cyprus Women’s Lobby hopes that this progress will strengthens the family web and strengthen the social state; they also hope that it will be extended in the future to other related rights with those of the Maternity leave.
In parallel with the above, the Social Insurance Law was passed with the purpose of adding provisions for the paternity and the maternity allowance, to be given to the affected employees. It is noted that the above legislation has come into force on 1 August 2017.
