Particularități în implementarea concediului paternal în Republica Moldova

Abstract

Paternity leave belongs exclusively to the father, is of short duration and is granted after the birth of a child, intended to allow the father to spend time with his partner and the newborn child. In the Republic of Moldova, this leave lasts 14 days and is granted in the first months after the birth of the child. During paternity leave, the employee benefits from a paternity allowance that cannot be lower than the average monthly insured income and is paid from the state social insurance budget. The article was developed on the basis of the qualitative study "Attitudes and practices applied in the implementation of paternity leave" in which fathers who have children up to 3 years of age and experts involved in family policies were interviewed, conducted in September 2022. The research method was the semi-structured sociological interview. The study data revealed that paternity leave influences the well-being of the child and the couple. The main difficulties in the implementation of paternity leave are: correlating the right to paternity allowance with the work situation and the contribution period; lack of encouragement from employers; poor information of parents regarding the right to paternity leave; discrimination by employers, and colleagues; constraints related to time and circumstances at work; failure to take into account specific circumstances (birth of twins, premature birth, disability or health status of mother or child). The article concludes with recommendations regarding the improvement of policies for granting paternity leave in the Republic of Moldova. The article was elaborated within the State Program Project (2020-2023) 20.80009.0807.21 „Migration, demographic changes, and situation stabilisation policies”.