Close Menu
    Latest Category
    • Finance
    • Tech
    • EU Law
    • Energy
    • About
    • Contact
    EUbusiness.com | EU news, business and politicsEUbusiness.com | EU news, business and politics
    Login
    • EU News
    • Focus
    • Guides
    • Press
    • Jobs
    • Events
    • Directory
    EUbusiness.com | EU news, business and politicsEUbusiness.com | EU news, business and politics
    Home » Parliament proposes standard maternity leave rights for self-employed women

    Parliament proposes standard maternity leave rights for self-employed women

    npsBy nps18 May 2010Updated:25 June 2024 No Comments3 Mins Read
    — Filed under: EU Law - employment EU News European Parliament Living & Working in EU women
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    EU Member States should grant standard social protection, including at least 14 weeks’ maternity leave allowance, for self-employed women and for wives or life partners of self-employed workers, says the European Parliament in a binding proposal to update an EU directive.

    Compromise amendments agreed with the European Council say it should be up to Member States to decide whether paying for membership of social insurance schemes (covering maternity leave, sickness, invalidity and old age) must be mandatory for self-employed women or whether they can access this system voluntarily.

    The EU is to update an existing law to give standard social protection rights to self-employed workers and the spouses or life partners of self-employed workers. Spouses or life partners are not employees but they nonetheless habitually help the self-employed worker (which is very common in farming, small firms and liberal professions). Self-employed workers, and self-employed workers’ assisting spouses could either be given the opportunity to pay to join a social coverage scheme or could be forced to do so, as each Member State chooses, stress MEPs in a sensitive compromise amendment negotiated with the Council at second reading.

    In any event, any pregnant self-employed woman or self-employed worker’s spouse would be entitled to a “sufficient maternity allowance to cover interruptions at their work” of at least 14 weeks’ maternity leave, i.e. the minimum paid maternity leave laid down for normal employees by the EU maternity leave directive.

    Again, it will be up to Member States to decide whether the leave is mandatory or voluntary, and whether this social protection can also be “proportional to the participation in the activities of the self-employed worker”.

    Temporary replacement

    Access to any existing national services providing temporary replacement of a woman on maternity leave can be considered “an alternative to, or a part of, the maternity allowance”, said MEPs. In this case, the woman in leave would not receive the full maternity allowance but could be easily replaced in the family business.

    No discrimination when establishing a company

    Lastly, Parliament calls on Member States to take necessary measures to ensure that the conditions for establishing a company between spouses (or life partners when recognised by national law) are not more restrictive than between other persons.

    Next steps

    The Council is set to adopt these amendments on 7 June. Member States will then have two years to implement all these changes to the directive, or up to four years “if Member States find difficulties” in finding the way to grant standard social protection to self-employed workers or spouses and partners of the self-employed.

     

    Add A Comment
    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    You must be logged in to post a comment.

    nps
    • Website

    Related Content

    Euro - ECB-Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

    Economic slowdown puts euro under pressure – Euro currency news daily

    Trade port cargo - Image by Pexels from Pixabay

    Single Market Strategy 2025: encouraging first step; EU institutions commitment is key

    Sponsor: EuroCommerce22 May 2025

    EU deal on patent rules exception to ensure supply of critical products

    Company board meeting - Image by Tung Lam from Pixabay

    Single Market Strategy: from ambitions into action

    Sponsor: SMEunited21 May 2025
    Construction workers - Photo by Mikael Blomkvist on Pexels

    EU proposes new cuts to red tape for European businesses

    Stéphane Séjourné - Photo © European Union 2025

    EU looks to boost inter-EU trade with new single market strategy

    LATEST EU NEWS
    Euro - ECB-Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

    Economic slowdown puts euro under pressure – Euro currency news daily

    23 May 2025

    EU deal on patent rules exception to ensure supply of critical products

    22 May 2025
    Construction workers - Photo by Mikael Blomkvist on Pexels

    EU proposes new cuts to red tape for European businesses

    21 May 2025
    Stéphane Séjourné - Photo © European Union 2025

    EU looks to boost inter-EU trade with new single market strategy

    21 May 2025
    Kaja Kallas - Photo © European Union 2025

    EU slaps new set of sanctions on Russia

    20 May 2025

    Subscribe to EUbusiness Week

    Get the latest EU news

    CONTACT INFO

    • EUbusiness Ltd 117 High Street, Chesham Buckinghamshire, HP5 1DE United Kingdom
    • +44(0)20 8058 8232
    • service@eubusiness.com

    INFORMATION

    • About Us
    • Advertising
    • Contact Info

    Services

    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms
    • EU News

    SOCIAL MEDIA

    Facebook
    eubusiness.com © EUbusiness Ltd 2025

    Design and developed by : 

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

    Sign In or Register

    Welcome Back!

    Login to your account below.

    Lost password?