MEPs unanimously adopted an amendment by the LFI group in favor of extending the minimum leave for the death of a child, increasing it from 5 to 12 days in the Labor Code. The measure was discussed as part of the examination of a bill from the Horizons group which aims to improve support for families of seriously ill children. The Insoumis Frédéric Mathieu defended this extension, necessary to “complete the administrative procedures” and “material” around a death.
“No day off will ever replace the loss of a child,” the MP stressed. The Labor Code currently provides five days for the death of a child, or seven working days if they are under 25. For the death of a child under the age of 25, an additional eight days of “parental bereavement leave” was added in 2020, which can be split, partly covered by Social Security.
The initial rejection by the Assembly two years ago of an extension of the leave in the Labor Code, which was proposed by Guy Bricout (UDI), had sparked a wave of indignation, and the Minister of Labor of time Muriel Pénicaud had found herself in the hot seat.
The deputies avoided, Thursday, March 2, to reproduce such an episode, but the rapporteur Paul Christophe (Horizons) said he was “quite embarrassed” that this amendment intervenes within the framework of a text aimed at “protecting parents from a living child”. He rather invited, but in vain, to take stock of the provision of 2020. The Minister of Solidarity Jean-Christophe Combe stressed that “we can only agree on this subject” of bereavement leave, and left it to the “wisdom” of the Assembly.
Considered at first reading, the bill on “the protection of families of children suffering from illness or disability, or victims of a particularly serious accident” was also adopted unanimously. and must now pass to the Senate, thus completed. It plans to increase from two to five days the duration for the parents of the leave for announcing the occurrence of a disability or a chronic pathology of a child.
The text also provides for prohibiting the dismissal of any employee parent concerned, facilitating access to teleworking or even keeping them in the accommodation, under conditions, in the event of lease renewal. RN deputies provoked widespread disapproval by presenting amendments in order to reserve certain measures for parents, at least one of whom is of French nationality. Jean-Christophe Combe denounced “limitless inhumanity”.